


A Lot of Fight Left in Me

by Stormwind13



Series: Core of Strength [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: AU, Gen, Lots and Lots of OCs, OCs - Freeform, Sakura Centric, time skip
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-18
Updated: 2017-10-29
Packaged: 2018-04-10 01:38:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 73,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4372169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stormwind13/pseuds/Stormwind13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sasuke deserted the village. Naruto is being taken away for his own safety. Sakura is left with the broken remains of her team and a teacher that's barely in the village, but she'll find a way to make this work. She has to, because all those lectures about teamwork had to mean something. Didn't they?</p><p>(Or, Sakura and Kakashi remain a two man team and events change from there)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Sakura does not actually appear and Tsunade's headache veers sharply into migraine territory.

Tsunade knew the burden of responsibility that wearing the Hokage’s robes really was. She’d seen three of the men who shaped her become bowed down and tired under the weight of the office. She’d seen countless others dying while proclaiming that they would bear that burden next. It was a responsibility that she’d been raised with, the knowledge that she might one day step into those robes and lead, even if no one, herself most of all, had honestly thought that she would be the only one left.

Even now, as she sifted through reports from the elders, from her Jounin and Chūnin Commanders, from the heads of T&I, the guilds and the councils, she wasn’t sure she had made the right decision, coming back. She had spent nearly twenty years running from the burden of leading others and she wasn’t sure that she could get back into the mindset that a true Hokage needed. She wasn’t sure if that ability was lost to her, after two decades of caring only for herself and Shizune.

But she did know that Jiraiya standing in front of her desk, looking determined, meant that he was about to add to the list of things that were going to be sure to make the headache threatening to appear worse.

 “Akatsuki is on the move.” Jiraiya stood in front of her desk, stance combative but with his arms crossed defensively over his chest. Tsunade recognized the stance from when they were younger, when Jiraiya thought he was right but was prepared to be dismissed.

Tsunade barely glanced up from her paperwork. Danzo wanted to do _what_ with ANBU? Wasn’t he retired or, better for everyone, dead? She scowled as she scrawled “ _rejected_ ” across the proposal instead of the “ _no way in hell_ ” that she wanted to. “That’s nice, but I knew that – it’s the direct catalyst that led to one of our most promising genin and the _last Uchiha_ defecting from the village at the same time that he managed to land eight other shinobi in the hospital, five of whom were in critical condition.”

And wasn’t that a headache and a half? She was going to have to deploy more of the jounin and chūnin than she was strictly comfortable with, leaving the defense of the village in the hands of genin and the few civilians that had some training, in order to make it appear that Konoha had not been unduly weakened even if the last member of one of their founding clans had defected. Tsunade truly wasn’t sure if it would be better or worse for them to claim it was a kidnapping.

“No, Tsunade, I mean that Akatsuki are hunting jinchūriki.” Tsunade’s head snapped up and she gave Jiraiya her undivided attention, taking her attention away from the annual prison report. Her old teammate’s face was a grim mask, age and worry combining to make him look nearly as old as Sarutobi-sensei had been instead of the only fifty that he truly was. “Naruto cannot stay in the village where he’s easy to locate.”

That was the last thing that Tsunade needed to hear. That was the last thing she needed the Council to hear, because they would order Naruto locked away somewhere, “for his own safety” of course, and that was not something that the blond would willingly tolerate and she wasn’t sure that Minato’s brat would tolerate either.

“Then take him on a training trip.” She ran a hand through her hair in frustration. “No one will know any different.” And since Jiraiya was one of the three Sanin, there was only so much grumbling that the Elders – and the Council – could do. “But make sure it’s soon, or the Elders and Council will try and trap you in the village.”

She’d like to see them try, but the last thing the village needed was the destruction that an escape by Jiraiya would cause – or the scandal of having to declare him a missing nin. Not to mention that any chance of Jiraiya taking Naruto and vanishing would be completely lost.

“Is that an order, Hokage-sama?” She sneered at him for the use of her title, something that she would never get used to, not from him. Jiraiya had never done respectful well and it was ridiculous when he tried. But she’d play along with him this time.

“Yes. Your Hokage orders you to take your new apprentice on a training trip in order to get him settled into the role.”


	2. Chapter the First

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Sakura receives a letter, makes new friends and finally visits the public library

She nearly missed it in the dark, since the envelope had been shoved through the mail slot with enough force to send it skipping down the front hallway. It was dark colored and Sakura barely noticed the tremble in her hands as she took in the council seal. The Elder Council, no less.

_Haruno Sakura,_

_It has come to our attention that with the defection of Uchiha Sasuke that your squad is no longer complete. Due to these unfortunate circumstances, Training Squad Seven is dissolved, effective immediately. You will have seven days to arrange alternate training or be considered derelict in fulfilling your duties._

It wasn’t signed.

It didn’t need to be.

Sakura crumpled the letter as she fought back tears. This wasn’t fair! She didn’t have any clue how to find – let alone arrange – this alternate training. And more importantly, she didn’t want to. Kakashi-sensei had told her that everything would be like it was and he’d _lied_.

Sakura took a trembling breath before admitting that that wasn’t fair to Kakashi-sensei. But what was she supposed to do? This had never come up in the Academy and no one had ever even hinted that there was anything _but_ training squads, at least not for genin.

She changed for bed on autopilot as she contemplated and discarded plans to find something, anything, that she could do, steadily getting more and more angry. How could they just expect her to work out what to do? She was barely twelve! No one had ever told her there were options other than a training squad. And find something else? In less than a week? Sakura scoffed. She’d be lucky to have any application she filled out looked at in a week, let alone approved.

 And as she drifted off to sleep, she made sure that the letter was right next to her head. She was going to remember that letter. And the council that sent it.

*~*~*~*~*~~**~

She still didn’t have any idea what to do when she woke up the next morning. She thought that maybe she should find Kakashi-sensei but she hadn’t seen him since before Naruto and the others had gone to try and get Sasuke back. She wasn’t even sure if he was _in_ the village.

So that avenue was closed to her. She fingered the letter – shoved into her weapons pouch – as she prepared a quick breakfast and headed to the hospital to visit Naruto. Lee would be training, this early in the morning, before the nurses made their first rounds and discovered him out of bed and Sakura decided to visit him later in the day. After she’d figured out what to do about the letter.

Luckily Naruto was awake so Sakura didn’t have to feel bad about showing up so early that he was still asleep, although he wasn’t anywhere near his usual cheerful self. Sakura could understand that since she hadn’t felt anything close to normal since the night Sasuke had… had disappeared.

 _Abandoned. Deserted. Left us._ Inner Sakura was in no mood to pull punches today and she could feel her nails digging into the palm of her hand.

“How long do you think that you’ll have to stay here?” It seemed like a reasonable question, since Sakura had noticed Naruto’s insanely accelerated recovery speed. But still, the wounds that he had taken were… well, they would have killed anyone else. That was what the nurse had been saying the other day, when she thought that Sakura hadn’t been listening.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head and grinned. “Baa-chan says that I can leave in a couple of days, isn’t that great? She fixed me right up – and she says that she fixed up Choji and Neji!”

“That’s great Naruto,” Sakura replied absently… maybe… maybe she could ask Tsunade if she would be willing to take her as an apprentice, since Kakashi-sensei wasn’t here? She wasn’t sure that she wanted to be a medic-nin, but she also wasn’t sure what other options were open to her. She refocused on her teammate, “Hey, I have to go run an errand, but I’ll be back later to visit, alright?”

She barely waited for Naruto to acknowledge her before she was out the door, heading for Hokage Tower.  


*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 “Akatsuki is hunting the jinchūriki. Naruto _cannot_ stay in the village.” Jiraiya’s voice carried easily through the door and Sakura froze, her hand hovering above the wood. She had just come from the hospital after visiting Naruto again and had been planning on asking the Hokage if the formidable woman would be willing to train her. She needed to be strong, she needed to find a teacher – the message that had been left in her mailbox made that very clear and she didn’t even know if she was still assigned to Kakashi-sensei anyway.

“Then take him on a training trip – no one will know any different, but make sure it’s soon, before the Elders or Council get wind of it and try and trap him in the village.” Tsunade’s voice sounded frustrated and tired, even more so than it had after she had finished healing Chouji and Kiba. Sakura moved her hand closer to the door, wanting to barge in and demand that Naruto not go, that her team not be broken any more than it already was.

But… Sakura backed away from the door and turned to go. The two Sanin wouldn’t change their minds because she, a lowly genin of no special clan or talent, didn’t want to lose her team.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

_Thunk_

_Thunk_

_Thunk_

Sakura threw another kunai at the target, worry and anger making her sloppy, as evidenced by the fact that, for the third time in less than a minute, she hit the tree behind where she was aiming. Naruto was in the hospital – had nearly died, if the nurse she had overheard hadn’t been exaggerating. Sasuke was _gone_.

_Thunk_

_And he left you on a bench, unconscious._ Inner Sakura was in fine form, as she had been ever since she’d been shaken awake by Kotetsu and Izumo-san, who had been passing by. _Good riddance._

_Thunk_

_But he_ thanked _me_. She wanted to believe that that meant something, that they’d actually managed to become friends. She _needed_ it to mean something, because otherwise, what was the point of even having teams, if they fell apart so easily?

_Thunk_

She paused in the middle of reaching for another kunai. What was she going to do? She knew that Naruto was leaving on some training trip with one of the Sanin and Sasuke… well, that left her, the girl with no clan and no one to recommend her. So what was she going to do? She hadn’t even realized how much she clung to the idea of _team_ until it was going to be ruthlessly snatched away from her.

She resumed reaching for her pouch before dropping her hand to her side and trudging towards the tree she had inadvertently savaged. It was getting late and she wanted to go see Lee, since he’d managed to land himself back in the hospital for the next few days. He was sweet, even if she could only stand small doses, and she thought that she might be the only person that visited him – besides his team and she wasn’t even sure if anyone other than the girl… Tenten, she thought, actually came. She certainly hadn’t run into any of them during any of her visits.

Kunai stowed away, she grabbed one of the small white flowers that grew on the training ground; during the spring, the flowers carpeted the area for a few days before someone’s training exercises would destroy them. But she had gotten into the habit of taking a flower of some sort with her whenever she visited Lee.

She glanced at the setting sun before she headed for the nearest building and scrambled up the side. This was something that she’d finally managed to figure out how to do on her own and it had made getting places faster if she took the roofs. Even if that meant that she got followed occasionally – most genin still hadn’t gotten used to the idea that the rooftop was just as useful as using the streets, so she was an unusual – and suspicious – sight.

The nurses had a fourth story break room that always had a window open and after her third time using the sill as a landing spot, one of them had hauled her in and told her to just “use the window instead of risking breaking your neck when you readjust your balance to walk down the side of the building”, so Sakura slipped in and immediately headed for Lee’s room.

He was there, talking softly to his female teammate – Tenten, Sakura was pretty sure, but the only time she’d seen the other girl had been during the preliminary exams – but they both looked up when she entered. Sakura shuffled her feet, nervous. She’d never interacted with Lee’s team, didn’t know how to, really. It was easy with the others; they’d been year mates and friends long before they’d been split into teams and had over a half decade of interactions to fall back on. She didn’t have any of that with these two. Only the beginnings of a friendship with Lee and after what had happened between Lee and the Sound shinobi and then Neji and Naruto she wasn’t sure that would be enough.

“Hi Lee-kun.” She held up the small flower like a shield. “I brought you another flower.”

Lee’s face lit up. “Sakura-chan!” He glanced between the two girls. “This is Tenten – she’s awesome with weapons.”

“It’s nice to meet you.” Sakura wasn’t sure what to do now; she didn’t want to interrupt but she didn’t want to just leave. Lee, she had found, was surprisingly good company after they had made it past the declarations of love – and wasn’t that a role reversal? She wasn’t sure that she liked it and had to deal with the slightly queasy feeling that she had been the one to make Sasuke uncomfortable.

“And you.” Tenten seemed polite enough and her gaze was friendly. “Do you want to stay? We were going to start a Go game, but we can switch to cards.”

Sakura opened her mouth, about to refuse but stopped. “I’d like that.” Visiting hours would be over soon and she could always talk to someone tomorrow. She was pretty sure that Iruka-sensei would be free tomorrow and he was usually at the mission desk if she couldn’t find him at his apartment. She pulled up a chair and took the cards that Tenten was dealing. “I’m not very good at them though.”

Tenten grinned. “We’re going to have to fix that – all shinobi should know how to gamble. At least that’s what Ebisu-san says.”

Sakura wasn’t sure who Ebisu was but as Tenten patiently walked her through the rules for Two-Ten-Jack, she forgot that in favor of having a few hours where she wasn’t going to worry about her future or what tomorrow was going to bring.

*~*~*~*~*~*

The next morning found Sakura on her old sensei’s doorstep, hand hovering over the door. Before she’d graduated, she wouldn’t have hesitated to just barge in, but now… she wasn’t sure what the protocol was for this. Iruka-sensei hadn’t said she wasn’t welcome to stop by but he hadn’t said that she could either and she was, technically, an adult now. Sakura bit her lip. She didn’t like not knowing what she was supposed to do.

“Hey! You’re blocking the door!”

Sakura looked down to see a small group of children, probably no more than two or three years younger than her – and they looked so young, after Wave and then the invasion by Sand and Sound. She wondered how many of them spent their nights sleeping in Iruka’s spare bedroom because there was no one at home. She stepped to the side, letting the students move past her, barging through the door, a chorus of “Iruka-sensei!” echoing through the small house.

The leader, a dark skinned girl with her hair held back by a red headband (Sakura thought she recognized her… Matsuri! Matsuri Takara), paused long enough to give her a confused look. “Aren’t you coming in?”

Sakura followed them in, heading for the kitchen and its well-ordered chaos with Iruka in the center, passing out bowls and pointing the students towards the rice cooker and the sauces simmering on the stove. She paused in the doorway, not sure where her spot was, but Matsuri shoved a bowl into her hands and Sakura moved towards the rice and the nori. 

Breakfast was loud and cheerful, with the children talking over and to each other as Sakura picked at her food and Iruka made sure that nothing got out of hand. Afterwards, cleanup was an assembly line of washing and drying that ended when Iruka chased the students out of the house with reminders that if their parents were on long term missions, they were to be back by dinner.

The kitchen seemed smaller without everyone in it and Sakura fidgeted uncomfortably, wishing her hair was long enough to twist between her fingers like she’d used to do. Iruka gave her a small smile and handed her a cup of tea before he motioned towards the table.

“How about you fill me in on what’s been happening with you?”

Sakura latched onto the invitation to talk and told him everything that had happened in the last few weeks – she didn’t think any of it was classified and she needed to tell someone. Iruka listened calmly, sipping his tea and watching her with concerned eyes as she unloaded two weeks’ worth of fear, anger and worry on him.

“…and now I don’t know what’s supposed to happen!” She paused and took a breath. “Sensei, what happens when a team… just… breaks?”

Iruka sighed and got up to refill both their cups before he sat down again, his expression pensive. “That depends. There are a few options: you could be placed on another team that is also missing a member – I think that there’s an opening on Asuma-san’s team, you could find someone to apprentice with, the medics are always looking for new medic nin, or you could petition to remain with your jounin-sensei as a two man team.”

Sakura’s interest sharpened at that – she did want to be stronger and she was going to help Naruto drag Sasuke back, even if they had to break every bone in his body first. _And he’d deserve it, the absolute jerk_. But she didn’t think that she could find someone to apprentice with that would teach her what she needed to know in order to get stronger the way she wanted – she didn’t want to _heal_ Sasuke after all and she didn’t have much to recommend her to anyone.

Iruka continued, “Your jounin-sensei also as to fill out the paperwork and present a plan that shows that you will be trained to the satisfaction of at least three other jounins and two Academy teachers in good standing.”

“That… that sounds like a lot of paperwork.” Sakura cringed at the sheer amount of convincing that she was going to have to attempt. Kakashi-sensei hated paperwork and had foisted it off on them as much as he’d been able to.

“It is – which is why so few genin bother with it. Most of them aren’t that attached to their jounin and most jounin aren’t that attached to their genin.” Iruka eyed her over the rim of his cup and sighed. “But, _if_ someone were able to convince their jounin-sensei to fill out preliminary paperwork, I _might_ be persuaded to help design a rough training outline to present to the other teachers.”

Sakura barely refrained from lunging across the table to hug Iruka – she could still be trained, if Kakashi could be persuaded and she wouldn’t have to try and convince someone that a half civilian genin of no special talent was worth apprenticing or try and integrate onto another team (that was a nightmare in and of itself, even if it did wind up being only Ino and Chouji).

But… how was she going to find Kakashi, let alone convince him? She was well aware that she wasn’t as strong as Naruto or as talented as Sasuke, that she was a civilian that was smart enough on anything that she could read and memorize, but she didn’t have the raw talent that made for attractive apprentices. She mulled over the problem as she continued to talk to Iruka about rebuilding the Academy and what his new class was like.

Iruka stopped her as she was leaving, looking concerned. “Sakura-chan, you know that there isn’t anything wrong with being placed on another team right? It isn’t a sign of failure on your part.”

“I know, Iruka-sensei, but I have to at least ask. Kakashi-sensei is a really good teacher.” She assured him, but she didn’t think that he really believed her. She didn’t really believe her, after all, and she knew that the best way to tell a lie was to believe it yourself. As she hurried down the street, she took a deep breath. She could do this. She _could_.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

It was nearly dinner by the time that Sakura admitted defeat and started towards the hospital. She could at least visit Lee before she headed back to her parent’s house to sleep. She used the front door this time, not wanting to waste the chakra that wall climbing would expend and needing the time to go over what else she might be able to do to find Kakashi – unless he had left on a mission already? If he had, she might not see him for _weeks_ and she knew the council wasn’t going to just let her be at loose ends for that long.

Tenten was there again, talking to Lee, and Sakura hovered outside the door, once again not sure if her presence would be welcomed. But before she could retreat, Tenten noticed her and waved her in. “Hey, Sakura-chan. We were getting ready to start another card game, if you want to join us.” She held up the deck as evidence and Sakura smiled. She had had fun the other day and maybe…. Sakura eyed Tenten. Lee had said she was good with weapons – maybe the older girl would be willing to work with her? She let Tenten deal the cards and played a few rounds before asking.

“What are you guys going to be doing while you’re waiting for Hyuga-chan to get discharged?” Sakura narrowed her eyes as Lee’s face lit up. She wasn’t sure if he was acting or if he really had that bad of a poker face – they hadn’t played enough rounds last night for her to know one way or the other.

“Training by ourselves mostly, since Lee is discharged tomorrow.” Tenten shrugged and discarded some cards. “Gai-sensei told us that he’s going to need to take more missions for the next couple of months, since the village can’t seem like its weak after… after everything.”

“Oh.” Sakura picked up the cards Tenten had dropped and scowled, immediately discarding them. “Do you mind if I trained with you?”

“Sure.” The older girl agreed. “We train really early though. At dawn early.”

Sakura almost said no – she didn’t want to get up at _dawn_. She took a deep breath and forced herself to nod. “Alright. Which training ground?”

“Two.”

At least she knew where that one was – there were close to fifty training grounds in all, though only eight were in the village proper. The rest were between the walls and the second set of wards that had been placed in the forest that surrounded and protected the village.

“I’ll be there – is there anything that I should bring with me?” She wasn’t sure what type of training that Tenten and Lee did and didn’t want to inconvenience them by asking for weapons or whatever else that they might have. Tenten shrugged and made a face at her cards – not a good hand, then.

“Water and whatever kunai you have.” Tenten gave her a searching look. “Unless you have a weapon that you specialize in?” She sounded so hopeful that Sakura felt a little bad when she shook her head in the negative. Tenten sighed in disappointment. “Oh. Well, you could try some of mine and see if there’s any you like?”

“That…” Sakura smiled tentatively. “That would be nice.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

She was never ever, never ever doing this again. She wanted to _die_ and they’d barely been training for _an hour._ But Tenten had been true to her word and had let Sakura try as many of the older girl’s weapons as she wanted. They’d decided that she didn’t have the muscle (for now) to manage any of the swords and so had concentrated on the smaller weapons.

Now they were working on her taijutsu. Or rather, Lee was working with her on taijutsu while Tenten watched from the sidelines and gave – frequently scathing – commentary about her form, endurance and strength. The only thing that kept Sakura from screaming at Tenten was the helpful tips that she interjected into her commentary and Sakura knew that she would be coming back tomorrow.

“You do this every day?” Sakura rested her hands on her knees and tried to look like she wasn’t about to collapse while she mentally resolved to expand her training schedule at the first opportunity. This was ridiculous, she couldn’t be that weak. At least, she hoped not. Tenten handed her a canteen, looking somewhere between amused and sympathetic.

“Yup. Gai-sensei is determined to make sure that all of us don’t have to rely on ninjutsu or genjutsu.” Tenten shrugged and took a sip from her own canteen. “Not every opponent is going to be weak against them, but most opponents will go down if you can hit them in the right spot. Besides, both Neji and Lee’s styles don’t involve ninjutsu.”

Sakura considered this as her breathing returned to normal and the red flush of her skin began to fade into the lighter tones that she was used to. “Makes sense. We spent most of our time – well, I spent most of my time building up my stamina. The boys had more.”

“Well, we’re going to be here every day if you want to join us.” Tenten looked her over. “I can dig up the exercises that Gai-sensei started us on and give them to you to use until you get better.”

“That would be great.” And if she could incorporate it into the lesson plan that she was going to get Iruka-sensei to help with, that was one problem out of the way. Now, if only she could find Kakashi-sensei and _get him to sign the paperwork._

She straightened and glanced at the sun, deciding that it was late enough the library was probably open so she could get her hands on the forms she needed and fill them out herself. Maybe if Kakashi-sensei only had to sign his name it would be easier to convince him. “I need to get some papers from the library, but I’ll see you and Lee tomorrow.”

“Alright. You seemed like you’d be good with the tonfas, so we can start you on those.” Tenten’s smile was conspiratorial. “But we’ll keep it a secret, since I’m not supposed to actually train anyone with them; I don’t have the certification yet.”

Sakura returned the grin. “Your secret’s safe with me.”

She started towards the center of the city at a light jog, turning so that she could cut through training ground three and past the memorial stone – it only took a few minutes off her journey, but she needed to waste as little time as possible. Naruto was getting discharged tomorrow and she’d need to have something to present to someone by then.

She was giving the memorial stone wide berth but stopped when she saw the flash of gray that could only be her teacher’s hair as he crouched in front of the stone. She paused but continued making her way towards the library; she wasn’t going to interrupt anyone’s time in front of the stone and at least she knew where she could probably find him now. She stumbled as she wondered if this was why he was always late. She sort of hoped not – it was too depressing otherwise.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The archives were located behind the Hokage Tower and nearly a hundred yards into Hokage Mountain, behind wards and seals that had been placed by the First Hokage’s wife and were reinforced yearly by the current Hokage and the top three Fūinjutsu experts in the village. She could feel the wards responding to seals that were carved into the metal plate of her hitai-ate, allowing her access to the archive’s front doors.

“Haruno Sakura. Registration number 0126010.”

The chūnin in charge of the desk held out a hand, looking bored. “Identification.”

Sakura dug out her ID and waited patiently as the chūnin examined the slip of plastic before he handed it back, rattling off instructions as he did, “Genin authorization only, no scrolls with anything higher than E-rank techniques are to be removed from the premises, don’t make copious amounts of noise, if you need help there are summoning seals every third pillar and the training halls need to be reserved at least four hours in advance. Any questions?”

“No.” Sakura moved past him into the library and took in what appeared to be miles of shelves. There were other rooms, further back, for chūnin and jounin, but the three main rooms allowed access to every ninja in the village. And the forms she needed would be in one of the smaller rooms off to the side, along with forms for retirement, marriage, and advancement requests. This librarian was an older woman who peered at Sakura suspiciously when she made her request. “I can’t remember the last time anyone asked for those forms. What do you need them for?”

Sakura bit her lip and looked off to the side, the picture of embarrassment. “Both my teammates received apprenticeships from other jounin, so I’m at loose ends at the moment.” It was true, in a sense – she was sure that Sasuke would be learning from Orochimaru while he was with him, so she wasn’t lying.

“And they left you out in the cold?” The old woman made a disapproving noise as she began to shuffle papers around. “It will take me a while to find them. Come back in a half hour or so and I’ll get you started on filling them out.” She continued to mutter sourly under her breath as her turned her back to Sakura, digging through piles of papers.

Clearly dismissed, Sakura wandered back into the main room, roaming through the stacks without a clear destination in mind. She slid her fingers over the scrolls, not really taking in what they were about, until she came to the end of the shelf. She was about to start wandering down the next aisle, but paused. This was a library – there was probably a scroll somewhere that would help her build her chakra reserves that _wasn’t_ tree walking.

She began wandering with more purpose, heading for the physical education section. There were probably one or two scrolls that she would be allowed to check out – hopefully. Except, she couldn’t find the physical education section. She scowled at the stacks, glaring at the end plates and wishing that she had thought to spend more of her time here before now. She stomped over to the summon seal on the nearest pillar and slapped her hand on it, hoping that it wouldn’t take long for someone to show up.

“That’s not very nice.” The voice was familiar, as was the amused tone, and Sakura turned around to face, “Kotetsu-san!” The chūnin was a nearly permanent fixture at Iruka-sensei’s house and Sakura had more than a few memories of him during her childhood. Most of Iruka’s gaggle of Academy children did.

“What are you doing here?” She flushed deep red the moment the question left her mouth. How could she be so rude? “I mean… usually you’re at the gate or…. I’m going to stop talking now.”

Luckily the older man didn’t seem offended, only amused. “I’m taking a turn as a library helper, since Izumo is busy with other duties.” Or, Izumo had been tapped for an out of village mission and Kotetsu was distracting himself by taking extra work. Sakura couldn’t name a time when those two weren’t joined at the hip, so this was kind of weird. “What do you need help with?”

“Oh!” Sakura gestured at the stacks. “I was looking for chakra building exercises, but I don’t know where they’d be.”

“Physical education if you’re looking for exercises like tree walking. Or the philosophy section if you want to try meditation.” Kotetsu started walking and Sakura hurried after him, taking note of which direction they were heading – she really didn’t want to get lost!

“Um… probably the physical exercises. I don’t suppose that there are any that also build stamina?” She asked hopefully – if she could kill two birds with one stone that would make her life easier.

“Sure – they’re D-rank exercises though, so you won’t be able to take them out of the library, but Iruka probably has some copies at his house if you write the title down.” Kotetsu gave her a sideways look. “If you need help, Izumo and I are both available in the evenings.”

“I’d… I’d need to talk to Kakashi-sensei, but if he says yes… I’d like that Kotetsu-san.” Sakura reached for long hair that wasn’t there and dropped her hand back to her side. “But… why? I mean, you have to have better things to do than work with me.”

“You’re one of Iruka’s kids and you’re a fellow ninja that needs help.” Kotetsu gently tapped her hitai-ate in reminder. “I realize that we’re not jounin, but chūnin don’t mind helping out even if we don’t formally teach.” He grinned. “I admit, I mostly work with newly promoted chūnin, but there shouldn’t be anything wrong with helping out a genin.”

They went around another corner. “Here you go.” Kotetsu turned to go. “Talk to Hatake-san and let me know. You know where to find us in the evenings.”

“I will! Thank you again Kotetsu-san.” Sakura began digging through the scrolls, skimming their contents before she placed them back on the shelves. By the time the old librarian’s time limit had passed, Sakura had found two scrolls that looked like they had potential and memorized the titles. She could ask Iruka if he owned copies or, if not, she could ask him the best way to buy the scrolls herself. She still had plenty of money saved up from all her D-rank missions.

She ducked into the room to see the librarian pulling out a pen before the old woman gestured her over. “Now, you’re going to fill this out before you leave, so that I know it’s done right. No point in having it rejected because you can’t fill boxes correctly.”

It took her two hours to fill in all the information that Sakura knew and guess at the rest, but the librarian didn’t seem to mind, since she let Sakura sit to the side of the desk and looked over each section after Sakura had filled it out.

“Thank you very much.” It was all that Sakura could think to say, after she was done and had cleaned up the corner of the desk she had been using. “I don’t think that I could have found everything I needed on my own.”

“Of course you couldn’t have – you’re a genin. Most genin don’t learn how to do all this,” a wave encompassed the library, “until they’re chūnin.”

That was true; this was only the second time that Sakura had set foot in the library since she graduated and the first time was just to prove to herself that she could, since this place was off limits to civilians. Clan children, with their access to their own family libraries, might not see the point in coming, since any scrolls here they could read at home.

“Come back if you need any more help, it’ll keep the library workers on their toes if they actually have to do some work for once.” The old woman smiled and Sakura returned it with one of her own. “I will, definitely.”

 


	3. Chapter the Second

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Sakura gains herself new sparring partners, a new teacher, and several criminal charges (or would have, if she'd be caught. Which she hadn't)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own this, I'm not making money off of this, etc.

She was practically skipping as she left the mountain and headed for the memorial stone – if nothing else, it would give her a spot to start searching for Kakashi-sensei. She slowed as she approached and then stopped entirely. Kakashi-sensei _was still there_. And he’d been there when she’d been heading for the library… how many hours did her sensei spend at the stone? She hesitated for a moment and then wandered over to the bridge to wait; there was no way that Kakashi-sensei hadn’t noticed her and he hopefully wouldn’t duck out on her.

She sat on the rails for a few minutes before she got bored and leaned over the side, considering. Maybe she could work on her chakra control? She slowly swung her leg over the railing and shoved the chakra into her feet before – slowly – walking to the underside of the bridge and hanging there. The novelty of seeing the world from a bat’s perspective didn’t last long either and Sakura sighed as she snuck a look at the stone and saw Kakashi hadn’t moved.

It took her another few minutes of thought before she began trying to suppress her chakra. She knew the jounins could do it and Iruka, Kotetsu and Izumo did it on a regular basis, so how hard could it be? The fourth time that she almost fell of the bottom of the bridge because she’d suppressed too much chakra she admitted defeat and started to climb back to the top of bridge.

“What are you doing?”

She shrieked and lost complete control of her chakra, but Kakashi grabbed her by the back of her shirt and pulled her onto the railing. “Kakashi-sensei! I was… I was waiting for you to get done!”

“Is that why you were flaring your chakra to get my attention?” Kakashi-sensei looked distinctly unimpressed and Sakura flushed red. She hadn’t meant to interrupt him.

“No…” She scuffed a foot against the railing and muttered, “I was trying to suppress it, but I kept suppressing it too much and almost falling.”

Kakashi-sensei sighed and looked her over. “Next time, don’t try it while hanging from the underside of a bridge. Now what were you waiting for me for?”

Sakura didn’t hesitate and shoved the papers at him. “Could you sign these? Please?”

“You do know you don’t need my signature in order to start an apprenticeship right?” Kakashi was flipping through the forms while he talked and she knew the instant that he recognized which forms they were. “Sakura, how did you even find these?”

“Please Kakashi-sensei!” Sakura really, really didn’t want to break up what was left of her team. “I’ll work really hard, harder than Naruto even and Tenten-chan said that she’d get me a training workout that Gai-sensei started them on and Kotetsu-san said he’d work with me on chakra control and I’ll study in my free time. I promise I’ll make it worth it!”

Kakashi-sensei was studying her like she was an interesting new species that he’d just discovered. He considered the scroll for a minute and then tucked it into his vest. “Let’s make it a test. I’ll give you two days, starting tomorrow morning, to find the scroll and meet me back here. If you find it, I’ll sign it and turn it into the ninja council myself.” He paused, thinking, and then sighed. “You can use whatever resources that you can find in order to locate the scroll.”

“Two days, starting tomorrow.” Sakura took a deep breath. It wasn’t an outright no and this had to be easier than the bell test. Probably. “I can do that.”

“Alright then. Tomorrow morning.” Kakashi-sensei vanished in a swirl of leaves and Sakura blinked. She wanted to be able to do that! But first… she turned and raced back into town. He had just said she couldn’t start looking until tomorrow. He hadn’t said anything about waiting until tomorrow to get her resources ready.

She stopped by Ichiraku for lunch before she headed to the hospital. Naruto was getting discharged today and she wanted to at least make sure he made it home. Then she would go find Hinata to ask if the other girl would help her.

“Sakura-chan, did you find what you needed?” Iruka slid into the seat next to her and gave her a smile before turning to Ayame. “The usual please, Ayame-chan.”

As Ayame hurried away, Sakura quickly finished eating her ramen before she turned to face Iruka. “Yes and I got it filled out.” She poked the empty bowl. “Kakashi-sensei said that if I can find the scroll in two days, he’ll sign it.” Sakura was too busy poking at her bowl to see the annoyed look that flashed across Iruka’s face. She straightened up and gave him a grin as she shoved the bowl behind the line so that Ayame would know she was done. “But he said I could use any resources I could find, so I’m going to ask Hinata if she’ll help me, since her Byakugan is perfect for tracking!”

Iruka nodded approvingly. “That’s a good plan – she and her team tend to be at Training ground eight so you might want to start there.” Iruka paused. “Are your parents still out of the village?”

“Yes sensei. They’ll be gone for at least another month, since the trading season just started.” Sakura’s mother was a cloth merchant and typically spent the early part of the trading season travelling the smaller countries that bordered the Land of Fire while her husband, a chūnin, played the part of her bodyguard. Sakura was used to it, since this arrangement had been going on since her first year in the Academy and she was sure that actually seeing her parents during the spring and early summer would be far stranger than spending that time on her own.

“Then I’ll save you a spot at the table for dinner tonight.” That was also nothing new – she had been one of Iruka-sensei’s group of children who had one or both parents gone for long periods of time. She had spent more nights than she could count sharing Iruka-sensei’s guest bedroom with a handful of other children from the Academy.

Sakura smiled at him as she slipped off the stool. “Thank you sensei. I’ll see you there.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

She ran into Naruto sneaking down the side of the building, still dressed in his hospital gown. “Naruto, what are you doing?!” She couldn’t believe him! What if he tore something?

“Sakura-chan!” Naruto sent a panicked look back at the open window he’d clearly just climbed through before he turned back to her, expression pleading. “Please, please don’t tell!”

Sakura narrowed her eyes at him, taking in his entire appearance. “Fine. But only if you stay at Iruka-sensei’s tonight.” It seemed fair enough to her; Naruto liked Iruka-sensei and that way he wasn’t on his own if something went wrong. Also, Naruto would be forced to eat something other than ramen.

“But Sakura-chan, I’m fine, I promise.” Naruto’s whine certainly made him sound like he was fine, but Sakura’s frown deepened before she snapped, “Iruka-sensei’s or no deal Naruto. You wouldn’t be allowed to be on your own even if you had waited to get discharged.”

Naruto opened his mouth, probably to argue some more, before he snapped it shut and nodded tersely at her. “Fine. It’s closer to the gate anyway.”

“You have a mission already?” Sakura couldn’t believe it. He hadn’t even been discharged from the hospital – was the village really that hard up that they’d send a genin just out of the hospital on a mission?

Naruto dropped the last few feet to land next to her. “Yeah. Me and Ero-sennin and Shikamaru are going to the Land of Rice Paddies to see if we can find Sasuke there.” He scowled at nothing. “I was gonna go on my own, but Ero-sennin caught me at the gate and brought me back to the hospital.”

He had been going to leave without her? Sakura forced down the feeling of betrayal enough to call up a smile. “Well, be safe then. And if I don’t see you at Iruka-sensei’s for dinner I’m going to hunt you down,” she leaned in closer, “and you won’t like it if I have to.”

Naruto gulped. “I’ll be there, I promise, Sakura-chan!” He sidled off to the side, clearly seeking an escape route. “I’ll see you then, have to go get packed.” He vanished up into a tree and Sakurpa debated yelling after him, but refrained. It wasn’t worth it and he was probably long gone by this point. She resumed her trek towards training ground eight and hoped that Hinata was there; she really didn’t want to try and get past the sentries that kept outsiders out of Hyuga lands.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Luckily, Hinata was at the training grounds, so Sakura was spared from having to try and make an appointment. She stood off to the side and watched the other girl fairly dance around her two teammates’ lunges, at least until she noticed Sakura and lost focus. Kiba wasn’t expecting Hinata to suddenly freeze and slammed into her, knocking them both into a post. Akamaru was a bit more graceful and bounded over Hinata to land on Kiba’s head.

“Hinata-chan!” Sakura rushed forward. “I’m so sorry! Are you alright?”

She and Shino reached the other two at the same time and managed to help get them untangled and back on their feet.

“Sakura-chan? What are you doing here?” Kiba sounded wary and Sakura tried not to take it personally. After all, she hadn’t exactly been good friends with any of Team 8 before they graduated and they’d only drifted further apart in between graduation and now.

“I was actually hoping to ask you guys for a favor.” They were a team and if all of them agreed to help her, it would go a lot faster. “Kakashi-sensei hid a scroll for me to find, starting tomorrow morning, and since you guys are a tracking squad I thought, if you aren’t busy or anything, that maybe you could help?”

“What would you offer in exchange, since you specified a favor?” Shino’s voice was toneless and Sakura assumed he was the leader of the group, since he was talking for them. Although he could just be the spokesman. She bit her lip as she thought, forcing herself not to reach for hair _that wasn’t there anymore_.

“What did you have in mind?” She countered – she honestly had no clue what any of them would want, so better to have them name the terms and she could negotiate from there. Shino glanced between her and his two teammates. “Spar with us so that Hinata has more opponents, at least once a day.”

“Every other day.” Sakura countered, mentally arranging her schedule. If she could spar with Tenten and Lee in the mornings and Kotetsu and Izumo after dinner – which meant that she’d probably be having dinner at Iruka’s house every night from now on ( _oh darn_ , whispered Inner Sakura, _you’ll actually get to enjoy dinner instead of eating by yourself in an empty house_ ) then that left her with some free evenings, assuming that Kakashi didn’t have her doing any training in the evenings. “With flexibility in regards to any assignments given by our senseis.”

Shino considered her. “That seems fair. What are we tracking?”

Sakura’s face split into a grin and she resisted punching air. “A scroll. Approximately a foot in length, with blue rollers that have a wave pattern on the end pieces. There are seven pages in total on the scroll itself. It was last in the possession of Hatake Kakashi,” she glanced at the sky, “as of an hour before noon. He may or may not still have it in his possession, but I’m not allowed to look for it until tomorrow.”

Shino nodded. “Then we will meet in front of Hokage tower at two hours past dawn and spread out from there.” He glanced at his teammates before he returned his gaze to Sakura. “Anticipate opposition in locating the scroll. Will you be joining us?”

“I thought I would.  I mean, it’s my scroll, right? I should be with you.”

“True.” Shino nodded gravely at her. “We will look for you then.” He turned back to Hinata and Kiba. “I think that is enough for today, if you are to the point where you can be so easily distracted.”

Hinata looked like she was going to argue before her shoulders slumped. “I… alright.” She glanced at the sky and squeaked. “I have to get to my lessons! Goodbye Kiba-kun, Shino-kun. See you in the morning Sakura-chan!”

Hinata darted down the path back towards the village and Sakura turned to the boys. “I guess I’ll be going too – thanks for your help.”

“It isn’t any trouble and it is a good way to practice our skills while Kurenai-sensei is busy with taking missions.” Shino vanished into the trees as Kiba and Akamaru leapt into the branches, leaving Sakura alone.

“Well, alright then.” She sighed. It was still a few hours until she could conceivably show up at Naruto’s place to make sure he actually went to Iruka’s. She turned and wandered back towards the town – it was Market Day, so maybe she could find something interesting in the stalls.

*~*~*~*~~*~*

Sakura met up with Naruto near Iruka’s house, though it was hard to tell it was him at first. “Naruto? Why are you carrying those boxes?” Her teammate was laden down with several boxes and it didn’t look like he could see where he was going. She spared a thought to wonder if he’d considered using his shadow clones before she decided that that was irrelevant.  She grabbed a couple that looked like they were about to fall and arranged them so that she could comfortably carry them.

“Ero-sennin said that I should put my stuff in storage and since my apartment is on a month to month lease I thought I could leave it with Iruka-sensei.”

Sakura considered this as she walked next to him. “Well, Iruka-sensei’s house is pretty small.” She peered at the boxes doubtfully. “Do you think he has enough space for all of this?”

Naruto faltered for a second, having clearly not thought of that, and Sakura sighed, turning onto one of the smaller streets. “You can leave it at my house, since we have a lot of extra space. And then you can pick it back up whenever you get back.” She glanced at him. “Do you know when that will be?”

Naruto shrugged and wouldn’t meet her eyes. “Probably not for a while – Ero-sennin says that we might be gone for a few years.”

“A few years?” Sakura squeaked. That was a lot longer than she had thought. “Shikamaru-kun too?” Ino wasn’t going to be happy about that. Not to mention Chouji’s reaction.

“No, Shikamaru will be coming back after this mission and we’ll be heading for… somewhere. He was really vague about it.” Naruto sounded unconcerned with his lack of information and Sakura sighed internally. Naruto was probably never going to change. Well, maybe he would, since he was going to be working with one of the Sanin. She blinked, surprised at how upset the thought of Naruto changing made her.

“Well, when you get back, I’ll be stronger. And we’ll bring back Sasuke.” She took a breath as they turned onto her front walk. “Together.”

*~*~*~*~*~*

Luckily, they were one of the first ones to get to Iruka-sensei’s house, which meant that while they had to help him start dinner – tonight it was curry and Yakisoba – they weren’t going to have to do dishes afterwards. Sakura chopped the vegetables while Naruto started to cook them and Iruka got the rice ready. There were usually anywhere between two to twelve children on any given day, but she knew that Iruka rarely spent his evenings alone.

“Did you manage to find Hinata?” Iruka called from his spot at the table, where he was taking the time to grade papers before the younger children showed up and he was forced to put them away.

Sakura nodded, not looking up from the eggplant that she was dicing into the smallest pieces that she could manage. Eggplant wasn’t a favorite, but there wasn’t a lot of complaining when it was diced so small that you could barely tell it was there. “Yes. She and Kiba-kun and Shino-kun agreed to help me tomorrow.”

“What are you doing tomorrow?” Naruto asked then yelped as some of the oil in the pan popped, landing on his hand. “Hot, hot, hot! Is it something fun?”

Sakura rolled her eyes. “No. Kakashi-sensei wants me to find a scroll and I asked Team Eight to help me. I would have asked you, but you said you were leaving early.”

“Oh.” Naruto looked downcast for a minute before he brightened again. “Still, Hinata-chan is probably really great at finding things, since her eyes can see through everything!” He danced in place for a minute. “But you really would have asked me?”

“We’re a team aren’t we?” _Except not, because he didn’t even tell you he was going to leave until an hour ago._ Sakura ignored the whisper. “But I’ll come see you off, alright. Are you leaving at dawn?”

Naruto’s grin could have lit up the entire village on its own and Sakura wondered how he could still smile like that. Because she knew how some of the villagers looked at him – how _her_ parents talked about him – and she didn’t think that she’d be able to smile like that. “That’d be great Sakura-chan! And yeah, we should be leaving at dawn, but I don’t know if we actually will.”

“I’ll walk with you there and then head over to train with Tenten-chan and Lee-kun.” She dumped the eggplant into the wok before she grabbed the peppers out of the fridge to start chopping them. Naruto gave her a smaller smile, but Sakura thought that it was more genuine. “That’d be nice. Thanks Sakura-chan.”

“IRUKA-SENSEI!!”

Sakura jumped as Iruka’s front door burst open and there was a small pause as shoes were discarded and placed (neatly) onto the shoe cubby before the kitchen was flooded with kids. Two of the boys immediately went to Iruka to show him whatever they had found (from the sound of it, whatever it was would probably wind up in a cage and on Iruka’s back porch in the next few minutes). The rest of the kids started to grab plates and glasses or get the drinks out of the fridge.

“Matsuri-chan, could you help Sakura-chan get all of the vegetables cut?” Iruka asked as he hustled the boys outside and started to scold them. Matsuri, her headband a sky blue color today, started to wash the peppers and place them next to the cutting board. The work went quicker and it only took another twenty minutes before the bowls were being filled.

They’d barely started eating when Kotetsu slipped into the kitchen and joined them, ruffling the hair of some of the boys before he sat down. “Hey brats. Any of you know anything about the fact that someone smeared poison ivy juice on all the outside doorknobs and windowsills of the Jounin Station?”

One of the boys shook his head. “No – did they really?” Sakura took note of the kids that were suddenly busy chewing and knew that if _she_ had noticed then Iruka-sensei definitely had but the man just rolled his eyes and kept eating. Kotetsu chuckled as he stirred his rice around. “Yeah – a couple of the jounin are apparently pretty sensitive to the stuff and have a bit of a rash.”

Sakura stuffed some rice in her mouth to keep herself from laughing. Before, she might not have found it all that funny, but now, after having met some of the jounin, she could see why it would be amusing. Iruka sighed. “Really, Kotetsu, you’re only encouraging them.” He fixed the children with a stare. “I would hope that whoever did would know that such pranks are not welcome on Academy grounds.”

“Yes sensei!”

*~*~*~*

After the table had been cleared and Iruka had gotten the kids settled into the living room and kitchen to work on homework, Sakura followed Kotetsu out to the small yard that Iruka shared with three other houses.  Naruto followed them and settled himself down next to Sakura, watching curiously. Kotetsu dug through one of the storage chests that Iruka kept next to the back door until he came up with two staffs.

He handed one to her before he held the other out to Naruto. “Do you want to get a lesson in, kid? One time offer.”

Naruto gingerly took the staff as though he was expecting Kotetsu to snatch it back and send him away. When that didn’t happen and Kotetsu stood there patiently, he tightened his grip and nodded enthusiastically.

“Alright then. Sakura-chan, stand here. Naruto-kun, you’re over there.” Kotetsu made sure they were where he wanted them to be before he stood in the middle. “Now, this is about learning chakra control and building up muscles and stamina – also giving you a backup weapon in a pinch, because anything sufficiently long can be used as a staff. Do either of you know the three basic ways to build chakra?”

Naruto was the first one to speak. “I know! Um, tree walking, water walking and… and…”

“Meditation.” Sakura stepped in smoothly. “But meditation is considered the slowest and least effective way to gain new reserves.” Naruto’s “I knew that!” was comforting in its familiarity.

Kotetsu nodded. “That’s right. And in meditation you can either sit still – which is boring – or you can find a task that is so mind numbingly easy that you can slip into a meditative state while you do it.”

Naruto stared at his staff for a minute before his gaze snapped up to Kotetsu. “Like doing staff guard positions!”

“Exactly.” Kotetsu looked pleased that they were following his lesson. “So for tonight, I’m going to show you the three basic guards – low, middle and high – and where to position your hands and feet. And then you’re going to practice them until you could do them in your sleep.”

A glance to the side showed Naruto looking crestfallen. “But I’m leaving tomorrow!” He tightened his grip on the staff. “Do you think Iruka-sensei would mind if I borrowed his staff?”

Sakura rolled her eyes. “And how are you going to move around with a staff this big hanging off your back?” And then she frowned in thought. “Maybe Iruka-sensei could seal it for you in a scroll or something and you could practice in the evenings?”

Kotetsu repositioned their hands and pulled out a kunai, scraping the wood down until there was a clear rough patch where they should grip the staff. “These are my staffs, but yes, Naruto-kun, you can take that one with you – I have a mat that shows you where to position your feet that you can use on the road and I’ll get Iruka to seal that up too.”

The three positions were easy to learn now that they had a patch of wood to grip and Naruto and Sakura went through them again and again, with Kotetsu occasionally stopping to reposition their grips or stances. After about an hour, he had them pause. “Now, both of you know how to access your chakra?” He waited for them to nod before he continued. “As you’re going through the positions, access your chakra and let it spread out until it’s in every cell of your body. And then you contain it in your body without letting any of it leak.”

Sakura nodded – it sounded difficult, but nothing that would be too impossibly hard and she could see the benefit to learning this way. Naruto looked like he’d just been dumped in the bottom of a ravine and told he’d have to climb to the top and then climb a cliff that was next to the ravine. “Um… Kotetsu-san…” Naruto sounded hesitant and he shuffled nervously, darting anxious glances in her direction. Sakura frowned – she knew that he had crazy large chakra reserves and that control was a struggle, but surely it wasn’t that big of a deal. But Kotetsu frowned and then rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ll write Jiraiya-sama a note, he should be able to make sure things don’t get out of hand.”

“Naruto?” Sakura asked, clutching her staff tighter. Was something wrong with him? She could _feel_ the worry bubbling up in her gut. She couldn’t lose Naruto – not after Sasuke and the others almost dying and the Hokage’s death…. _She couldn’t lose him too_.

“He’s fine Sakura-chan.” Kotetsu rested a hand on her shoulder. “He just has trouble keeping his chakra contained and sometimes that can have… explosive results on the surrounding landscapes. Jiraiya-sama is good enough with seals to make sure that Naruto-kun’s chakra doesn’t get out of control.”

“Yeah!” Naruto gave her a wide grin that didn’t quite meet his eyes and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “I’m getting a lot better at it though!”

“You dummy!” Sakura shook her fist and was relieved when he flinched slightly. This, this was normal. This she could handle. “You had me worried!”

“Sorry, sorry.” Naruto held the staff up defensively. “But do you wanna try it? Before we have to get to bed?”

“One round you two!” Iruka’s voice carried through the door. “You both have to get up early! And Kotetsu, you’re on the couch tonight – Matsuri’s father just left for a mission, so the guest room is full.”

“Yes Iruka-sensei!”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Sakura barely made it to the training ground on time since she had waited with Naruto until Shikamaru and Jiraiya had shown up. Luckily, training ground two was near the front gate and if you sprinted it was only a few seconds run.

“I’m here, I’m here!” Sakura dropped out of the tree and glanced around, hoping that she wasn’t late. She didn’t think that the other two would mind, but she didn’t want to be late anyway. It seemed rude. Lee and Tenten were already there and looked ready to go, so she trotted over to join them, taking in the array of weapons that Tenten had already summoned up. “I thought we were just working with the tonfas?”

Tenten grinned at her. “We are – but Lee wanted to spar with me and well, “she gestured around her, “I need to collect all these again.”

Sakura immediately began to help gather the weapons. “I’d like to see you and Lee-kun spar, if that would be alright.” She handed the weapons to Tenten as Lee just dumped his into a heap next to the other girl’s summoning scroll. “It seems like it would be something to watch.”

“Anytime – we’ll wait until after you show up next time and I’ll use the tonfas so you can see what they look like in a real fight.” Tenten finished sealing her weapons back up and stood, brushing loose dirt off her pants. “But until then – let’s work on _your_ fighting skills.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

She was going to need to get new clothes, she decided, as she examined her outfit – it was ripped, covered in dirt from all the times she’d hit the ground, and there was no salvaging it. She sighed and mentally counted up her savings and figured out what she’d need. She liked her dresses… but she had to admit, it wasn’t very practical.

“Sakura-chan!” Hinata’s exclamation caught her attention as the other girl continued, “What happened to you?”

Kiba was grinning. “You look like me after I’ve gone a round with my sister and her dogs.” He sniffed the air and made a face. “You even smell like me.” Akamaru barked something that might have been an agreement. Or a laugh.

“Kiba-kun!” Hinata’s horrified gasp filled the air and Sakura flushed in embarrassment. She should have gone home and changed first, but they had said they would meet now and not everyone was Kakashi. Kiba protested, “That’s not a _bad_ thing. I just meant that she was working hard.”

“Enough.” Shino had been quiet until now but the other three immediately turned their attention to him. Was he their team leader? Sakura couldn’t see it, honestly, but she admitted that she hadn’t paid much attention to the dynamics of the other teams… another thing that she’d probably have to work on and she added it to her growing list. “Sakura-chan, we will need a scroll that you own and have spent time handling and carrying with you. Preferably something that only you will have handled.”

It was both a serious request and a way for her to at least change clothes so Sakura agreed easily. “Meet up back here?”

“No. We will be at the library so that Kiba can familiarize himself with its scents. We will meet there when you have the scroll.” They scattered and Sakura raced home to toss on a pair of biker shorts and a shirt while she grabbed her scroll on the history of the Third Shinobi War. She’d bought it on a whim after the mission to Wave and realized that Kakashi was really well known. But it was also the only scroll she owned that only she had touched – Shino had specified scroll, so she left her books alone. Maybe the binding threw the scent off? – so she grabbed it and raced for the library.

Hinata was waiting outside the library so Sakura sat down next to her on the steps. The other girl appeared to be reading a book, but Sakura could hear her muttering “Byakugan” under her breath every few seconds.

“Wouldn’t it be easier to just leave it activated?” Sakura asked, scanning the crowd and trying to pick out the shinobi that were off duty. The genin were easy, their hitai-ate proudly displayed – Sakura guessed that the academy had had its spring graduation ceremony recently – in between the Chūnin exams and the Sound invasion, she had forgotten about it. She would have to make a point to ask about the next graduation; she had a cousin that was in his last year and should be graduating soon. The chūnin were harder, but she noticed that some of the supposed civilians moved with more grace than everyone else. Their hitai-ate were tucked away, but after she noticed how they moved, she started to see the ends of fabric sticking out of pockets or the ends of jackets. So they were just tucked away but ready to be pulled out in case of emergency.

Hinata shrugged, not stopping her repetitious on and off of her bloodline limit. “I need to practice my speed and how fast I process and comprehend the information that I see when it’s active.”

“Oh. That… makes sense.” Sakura continued, “So why are you pretending to read?”

Hinata flushed and gave her a guilty sideways look. “I could get in trouble if I use Byakugan in the city unless I have the permission of a jounin or it’s a city emergency – it’s against one of the ordinances; Kurenai-sensei had me look it up right after we made genin.”

Sakura blinked. “Really?” She considered it. “I guess that makes sense; it would keep a little kid from seeing something that they probably shouldn’t. Are only genin and civilians not allowed to use them?”

“Right.” Hinata nodded. “Chunin and jounin can, but it’s still frowned on unless there’s an official reason.”

Because in a shinobi village, privacy – what little there was of it – was jealously guarded. And knowing that there was an entire clan of people that could violate that privacy in the blink of an eye was bound to make people twitchy. Sakura went back to crowd watching, trying to find the jounin, but she had only managed to spot a few people that she thought might be jounin when Shino and Kiba walked out of the library.

“Kiba will need your scroll.” Shino was as blunt as he ever was and Sakura handed the scroll over immediately – a glance at Kiba and Hinata told her that Shino didn’t mean anything by it; that was just how he talked. She watched in curiosity as Kiba and then Akamaru sniffed the scroll for a few minutes and then turned back to the library and inhaled deeply. Shino ignored them and spoke to Hinata. “Did you see anything?”

“Nothing. The scroll wasn’t hidden within a fifty meter radius of the mountain opening.” Hinata snapped her book shut and stood. “If Kiba can get us close, then I can search for it from there.”

Kiba nodded distractedly, his nose in the air and Akamaru next to him. The puppy gave a yip and bounded off into the crowd. Team Eight followed immediately and Sakura struggled to keep up with them – she hadn’t realized how _fast_ they were. Or how good at dodging. They only garnered disgruntled mutters and glares; she was the one that actually knocked into people and earned curses and attempted hits. 

Akamaru finally stopped six blocks away from the Hokage’s tower in the middle of the merchant district and turned in a circle three times before collapsing on his belly. The other four dropped into an alleyway where they wouldn’t easily be seen and surveyed the area while Akamaru joined them.

“He hid it _here?_ ” Sakura let her gaze roam over the street, looking for something obviously out of place, but didn’t see anything. On the opposite side of the street three specialty clothing stores were bracketed on either side by two weapons shops (one of which had a forge in the back, she could hear the ring of metal on metal). On their side was a footwear place, a salon and nail parlor (they also made some of the best wigs in the country – Sakura had aunts that would regularly donate hair to them), an herbal remedy store that was open all the time, and her mother’s cloth business.

Shino’s tone was neutral but his body language didn’t look happy. “Apparently. Hinata, see if you can find it.” Hinata nodded and lowered her head until her bangs obscured her face. “Byakugan.” Sakura and Kiba fidgeted as Shino released a few of his bugs into the air and sent them scurrying up and down the street.

“It’s in the herbal remedy store.” Hinata said, her voice trembling a little. “But it’s filled with chūnin and…” she swallowed, “the man from the first test.”

Sakura’s recall kicked in. _Tall, scars, scary._ “Morino Ibiki.” She blinked and paled. “Kakashi-sensei hid the scroll with _him_?”

She took a few minutes while all of them freaked out – none of them thought that they were supposed to have figured out that the herbal shop was a front for… something. Although Sakura guessed that whatever the shop was pretending to be, it was a front for wherever the real thing was, because no one would hide anything too secret right in the middle of the merchant district, even if most of the clientele were shinobi.

“Alright.” Sakura nodded firmly to herself before she eyed the shop. “How do I get it back?” That was going to be the tricky part – Kakashi-sensei hadn’t said he wouldn’t sign the scroll if she didn’t bring it to him, but he’d implied it and she was trying to see “underneath the underneath” like he had kept telling them. So she needed to actually get the scroll back.

“We.” She turned to Shino, one eyebrow raised in question at his seemingly random statement. “How do we retrieve it?” He clarified. “We will rarely ever be called to track something without attempting to retrieve it, so this will allow us to practice this skillset as well.”

That… made a lot of sense and also made her job easier. “Hinata, where is the scroll located?” Get the obvious question out of the way first.

“There’s an office in the back of the shop, and the scroll is on the right hand side closest to the door next to the small statue of a….” Hinata’s brow furrowed… “a lemur.”

“A lemur.” Sakura repeated flatly as she took her scroll back from Kiba and began to take the rollers off. She had the beginnings of an idea, but it was going to require them to spend the rest of today and tomorrow doing surveillance. She had an extra copy of the application paperwork with her and she briskly attacked the rollers to that.

“I assume we are attempting a simple switch then?” Shino asked as he watched her work.

Sakura nodded. “We’re going to need to spend the rest of today doing surveillance and probably tomorrow morning too, so we can figure out the best way to get past the person watching the counter.”

“We should see if Team Ten would also be willing to help us.” Shino suggested. “It will be less suspicious if there are several different rookies keeping watch than the same four.” He paused before continuing. “It’s not as though any of the others will have missions.”

That was true and Sakura was sure that no one had talked to Iruka about the dangers of bored _young_ shinobi. Everyone knew that jounin being bored was a bad thing but for whatever reason, no one ever worried about the younger shinobi being bored. Sakura was sure that that was a grave mistake – she and everyone from her age group knew how destructive Naruto had been.

But most of the rest of them weren’t, as a general rule, prone to breaking the rules. She kicked idly at the ground as they waited to see if Ino and Chouji would turn up and thought. Maybe they should change that, depending on how this turned out. Nothing too horrible, but something to help alleviate the boredom of not being allowed to do anything without supervision. 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“Forehe – Sakura!” Ino called as she and Chouji trotted up to the group; they’d relocated to a small sweets shop that was half a block down from the herbal remedy store and were sitting at one of the outdoor tables, keeping an eye on who was coming and going. “What was so urgent that Shino sent his bugs to come find us?”

Sakura pushed out an extra chair in answer and Ino dropped into it, Chouji taking another chair a second later. “I need to get a scroll that Kakashi-sensei hid, but it’s in the herbal remedy shop, which is – according to Hinata’s Byakugan – crawling with chūnin and that scary examiner. So we need to come up with a surveillance and retrieval plan.”

“And you want us to help?” Ino’s eyes darted between them before she rested her hand on her chin and frowned thoughtfully. “Sure. Asuma-sensei is gone on some mission to the capital and will be for at least another week.” She leaned forward. “And he wanted us to train with Gai-san.” All of the genin winced, including Sakura. Training with Tenten and Lee for a few hours in the morning was one thing, but officially being assigned to Gai was more than most of them could handle. “Luckily, Gai-san is also gone on a mission.”

Chouji looked somewhat put out at the fact that they’d been unceremoniously left behind – Sakura suspected that he was more upset that Shikamaru had left than Asuma, to be honest – without even a training plan. In fact… she took in the group in front of her and reached the conclusion that none of their teachers had bothered to give them any direction whatsoever before they’d gone out on whatever missions Hokage-sama had given the jounins.

“Right.” Sakura picked at a bit of her cake before she looked at them. “Just for today, we’re going to do reconnaissance, to see if there’s any pattern to who is coming and going. Tomorrow we’re going to pick a target and infiltrate using a henge in order to retrieve the scroll.”

“What are they getting out of this?” Ino waved her hand in the direction of Team Eight. “I realize that you’re getting the scroll that your teacher wants you to retrieve but what are they getting?”

Sakura opened her mouth to reply – she recognized the start of a negotiation ploy when she saw it – but Shino beat her to it. “We are receiving both practice in tracking and retrieval and Sakura-chan has agreed to sparring with us every other day, time permitting.”

Ino leaned back in her chair and narrowed her eyes. “Sparring huh?” She sounded thoughtful. “My conditions are the same as Shino’s – sparring when time permits, but I’m including Shino’s team in that too.” She stared at Sakura.  

“Deal.” While it probably wasn’t going to be anything but awkward for a while, this at least gave Sakura an easy way to try and reconnect with Ino. “And why don’t we all just spar together at the same time? It’ll make it more interesting and give us more variables to work with.”

Ino – who was apparently the second for when Shikamaru was unavailable, which wasn’t surprising – and Shino exchanged glances before they both nodded. Sakura was relieved since she was going to want days to train by herself.

“That’s acceptable.” Shino added and continued. “Your family jutsu, Ino-chan, how subtle is it?”

Ino stared into space for a minute before she answered. “Very. Dad can completely enter someone’s mind without even alerting them, but I’m not that good yet.” She sounded apologetic. “I’m better than I was during the exams, but not enough for a completely non-detectable full body takeover and I still need a line of sight.”

Sakura could see where this was going. “You don’t need to be – we just need you to ride along and listen to the code phrases and see if we can figure which code phrases are used for what. If there are code phrases at all.”

“There are code phrases.” Ino sounded more confident now. “My dad works with that first examiner  - Morino. So if he’s in that shop, they’re definitely hiding something.”

“We – we should narrow down Ino-chan’s targets first.” Hinata said, her eyes never leaving her plate. “Otherwise she’ll just be wasting chakra.” She paused and took a deep breath before she continued. “So maybe she should only attempt the jutsu on messengers from Hokage Tower?”

Ino blinked. “Good idea, Hinata-chan. That would help a lot.” She furrowed her forehead. “But I don’t know all of the messengers. I don’t think I know _any_ of the messengers.”

“I do.” Kiba and Chouji looked at each other in shock for a few seconds before Chouji motioned for Kiba to go first. “Mom and Hana – my sister – both spend a lot of time in the Tower and I did too, before and after the Academy. I have a good memory for people’s scents and anything that I can’t remember, Akamaru can.”

“Mom spends a lot of time with the archives – you know, Ino, - and she talked about a lot of the people there and what they looked like. Shikamaru probably would remember more, since our moms always talked about what people looked like and wore at his house, but I can probably pick out a few people.”

Sakura thought over what they had. “Shino, can you use the bugs to communicate?” She reached for her hair _that was no longer there_ and before she dropped her hand back into her lap. “So if Kiba or Chouji see something that they recognize as a Tower messenger they can tell an insect that you leave on them and that insect can let Ino know so she can start her jutsu?”

“That is feasible. We will need to find somewhere inconspicuous to sit, so that Ino will not attract attention when she leaves her body.” Shino let his gaze roam over the shops. “The first clothing store has the correct line of sight and is a good excuse. If Hinata goes with Ino, she can use her Byakugan to read the lips of the chūnin manning the counter in order to get the correct responses and replies.”

“Kiba and Chouji, you should go into the weapons stores, one in each, and start looking around. Shino, if you go with one of them, it will be less suspicious.” Sakura frowned. “I’ll go with whoever Shino doesn’t go with, so that we don’t attract as much attention.”

“Right.” Ino nodded determinedly and grinned. “Shikamaru is going to be so mad that he missed this!”

*~*~*~*~*~*

They broke off an hour before they were expected home for dinner and Sakura headed for Iruka’s house since she really didn’t want to be home alone. When she arrived, Iruka was still out, but she could hear the voices of children coming from the living room so she jimmied the lock and let herself in, depositing her sandals by the door and grabbing one of the last pairs of house slippers. The group of kids – ten, tonight – looked up when she entered and made faces before going back to whatever they were working on.

“Where’s Iruka-sensei?” She didn’t think he had a shift at the missions desk today, but he might have switched his schedule around since she had stopped coming over in the evening. Unlikely, but possible.

Matsuri looked up and scowled. “Konohamaru got caught pranking Funeno-sensei and has to stay after. So we’re working on homework until Iruka-sensei gets back.”

Sakura sighed and turned towards the kitchen. “I’m going to see what there is to make for dinner then. Whenever someone finishes, they can come and help me with that.” She really didn’t want to make dinner but that wasn’t fair to Iruka, especially since she could cook. Being lazy wasn’t an excuse and this would give her a chance to show she was grateful to Iruka for helping her with Kakashi-sensei.

Matsuri joined her a few minutes later and they worked in silence for a bit before Matsuri started sneaking glances at Sakura. Sakura let it go for another moment before breaking the silence. “Did you want to ask me something?” She tried to hit that tone that Iruka-sensei had, where he sounded completely interested without being pushy about it. She wasn’t sure how well she succeeded since Matsuri flushed and dropped her eyes to the cutting board.

“Could...” The younger girl took a breath. “Could you teach me to tree walk? Like the older kids do?”

Sakura paused and turned to face the other girl. “Matsuri-chan, why do you want to learn?” She’d do it anyway, because seriously, she would have loved to have learned to tree walk in the Academy –she could have snuck out so many…. Oooh, that’s why they didn’t learn tree walking in the Academy.

“Funeno-sensei told me that my chakra levels are some of the worst he’s ever seen and if I don’t make them better I’m never going to get to be a genin.” Matsuri looked devastated. “And I don’t want to bother Iruka-sensei since he’s been so busy with all of his teacher and mission desk stuff and he has to do other stuff now too.”

“He told you that?” Sakura racked her memories, trying to recall Funeno-sensei. She hadn’t ever been in his class and outside of maybe seeing him in the hallways, had never interacted with him. “Jerk. Let me see what my sensei wants me to do for training and then maybe we can go to one of the training grounds and try it.”

Matsuri’s grin was nearly as bright as Naruto’s and as she returned to chopping vegetables, Sakura resigned herself to less free time. But… Kotetsu-san and Iruka-sensei both were cutting time out of their schedules to help her and Matsuri had looked so defeated…

“Maybe you could bring some of the other students that Funeno-sensei says are having trouble and I could work with them too?” It was stupid, she was going to be in over her head, but she remembered feeling like that and if she hadn’t had Ino and later Naruto to help pull her to her feet, well, she wouldn’t be here right now. So she could help pull someone else to their feet. And they could help someone else after that.

“That… that would be good.” Matsuri watched as Sakura started frying the vegetables. “Konohamaru doesn’t really like him, but his mom won’t let him switch to Iruka-sensei’s class. So every time Funeno-sensei is mean – actually mean, not teacher mean – Konohamaru pranks him.” A pause. “Funeno-sensei gets pranked a lot.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Iruka-sensei didn’t show up until after dinner was on the table and they were already eating, but he wasn’t staying – there was a mission for him and he wouldn’t be back for at least three days.

“Do you want me to stay here while you’re gone to watch the house?” Sakura offered. If she was here, then the kids would be able to stay and not go back to wherever they were officially supposed to be and she wouldn’t have to stay at an empty house that seemed emptier every time she returned. “It wouldn’t be any trouble.”

Iruka-sensei’s gaze took in her and the others before he nodded. “I’ll leave money for groceries on the fridge along with the chore chart and my list of emergency contacts. Genma-san should be back tomorrow, so until then Suzume-sensei should be available.” He looked relieved as he headed for the back room to get his pack and Sakura felt something in her loosen. Iruka-sensei trusted her. He trusted her enough to leave her in charge. The other kids looked her over, clearly trying to get a read on her but Sakura just stared back. They’d get used to her soon enough and besides, it was only going to be a few days. Iruka came back out, pack slung over his shoulder. “Kotetsu and Izumo are going with me, so he told me to tell you to work on your stances and positioning for an hour every night and when he gets back he’ll continue to work with you.”

“Hai sensei.” She wasn’t sure Iruka heard her but the answer came naturally. She sighed and pointed randomly at three of the kids. “You guys have dishes tonight.” She paused and then continued. “Do any of you need help with homework?”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 “How do you build up your endurance?” Sakura asked, barely avoiding Lee’s leg. She jumped back, attempting to get more distance, only to land in Tenten’s range. The older girl took advantage, striking with her bo staff. Sakura managed to get a tonfa up in time to block but it left her open, a fact Tenten exploited by kicking her in the ribs.

“Running the city wall – if you can manage to do that six times in a row, than you’ve got more endurance than most people.” Tenten twirled the staff before dropping back into a ready position. “I’d start small – maybe try one or two laps and build up speed and endurance at the same time.” She grinned. “Lee and I go running before we come here, so feel free to find another time to do it yourself. Our training schedule is… unique.”

Sakura dropped back into her own ready position, shifting so that she could watch both older genin. Not that she thought that would help, but leaving her back unguarded was stupid. “I’ll keep that in mind. How’s Hyūga-san doing?”

“Neji is doing well!” Lee lunged and she could tell he was putting more speed into it this time. The older boy did that, starting off slow and gradually building his speed as she got used to his movements. Hopefully she’d be fast enough one day that he wouldn’t have to accommodate her like that. “His Youth and Drive will help him recover!”

Sakura dropped to avoid the blow this time, forcing herself to perform a kick that would have swept Lee off his feet if he hadn’t jumped straight up.  She rolled to avoid Tenten’s blow and came to her knees, tonfas held awkwardly in the guard position – she wasn’t used to them yet. “That’s good. Is he going to join us when he’s better?”

She assumed that the Hyūga trained with his teammates, but maybe he only joined when Gai was around. She’d only seen him during the final matches, after all, and her impression then had been of a slightly older, more arrogant Sasuke. Nothing she’d heard since then (but Naruto was hardly an unbiased source) had changed that impression.

“Probably. His uncle is working with him on the family style, but he told us he’d try to make it to a few team practices.” Tenten pressed her advantage and Sakura was forced back until she ran into one of the boulders that littered this training field. The staff tapped her forehead. “Gotcha.” The older girl looked her over. “You’re getting better. Are you going to be here tomorrow?”

Sakura nodded as she handed back her weapons. “Yeah. Thank you again for doing this.”

“Not a problem – you’re a pretty good student. Keeps it from being boring.”

*~*~*~*~*~*

“Are we sure this is going to work?” Ino kept her voice low as the group huddled together. They were around the corner from the store, but none of them wanted to draw more attention to themselves than necessary. Sakura didn’t blame her friend for asking – this plan was monumentally stupid, but it was the only one that might work at the current skill levels they were at.

“As sure as we can be, without a trial run.” Shino said. His voice was impassive, but both Hinata and Kiba’s reactions indicated that he wasn’t as calm as he sounded. Sakura took over. “So, since Morino-san isn’t here right now, this will hopefully go much smoother.” _If_ he had been there, Sakura would have called the whole thing off and admitted to Kakashi that she couldn’t retrieve it and hoped the fact that she’d found it ( _with help_ , Inner pointed out) would have meant enough.

“Hinata, you need to pick the target and signal with one of Shino’s bugs. Kiba, you’re her back up. Once you’ve alerted Ino, Hinata, you disappear.” Kiba and Hinata nodded and began to stroll towards the end of the street closest to Hokage Tower. “Kiba, start looking for ways of making a distraction.”

“Ino, once Hinata’s alerted you to a target, skim his thoughts – this close to the drop point with whatever message he has, he’ll be thinking about the correct code and counter code. Chouji, you do what you do and support Ino.”

Shino stepped in to continue with the instructions when Sakura paused. “Ino, you will then enter Sakura’s mind and deposit the information while I remove the scroll that the messenger is delivering. It will then fall to you two to delay the messenger until Kiba’s distraction starts.”

“Right.” Ino nodded firmly. “You can count on us.” She grabbed Chouji and dragged him towards the bakery – no one would comment on an Akimichi being in a sweets shop. Sakura watched them go and too another deep breath. They were actually doing this. _Kami, they were actually doing this_.

“Remain calm.” Shino’s voice was placid. “This mission is not outside of your skill set and should pose no danger.”

“Thanks Shino.” Sakura kept her voice as calm as his – it seemed to help. They both watched as one of Shino’s bugs flew in a pattern in front of them before disappearing down his collar. “Right. Let’s do this.”

*~*~*~*~*

It was apparently shockingly easy to pickpocket a chūnin. Who knew? Sakura muttered “henge” and transformed into whatever poor chūnin that Hinata had picked out. Luckily, both Kotetsu and Izumo were out of the village, otherwise she might have felt guilty. But they weren’t here and Sakura confidently stepped into the store as Ino erupted into shrieking that drew the attention of everyone on the street. “I need to place an order for some migraine medicine.”

The chūnin at the counter looked up and glanced around before responding by placing a packet of herbs on the counter. “This will upset your stomach. Maybe you should get something to follow it with.”

Sakura let her gaze wander over the shelves as she fingered the actual message scroll. “Maybe some feathered geranium or ginger.”

The chūnin relaxed and she placed the scroll on the counter. “Not a proble –“ His sentence was interrupted as a body slammed into the glass window. “What the hell?” He ran to the front of the store and opened the door, “What are you idiots doing?” and was yanked out into the street where it looked like Kiba had started a brawl. Because of course he had. Sakura rolled her eyes and ducked past the counter, towards the back. It was the work of seconds to break into the office where the scroll was sitting.

She took a deep, calming breath – _this mission is not outside your skill set_ – and snagged the scroll off the desk, quickly opening it in order to verify that it was the right scroll. It was and she shoved it into her pouch, placing the mocked up copy in its place. Now to get out of here before Kiba’s distraction stopped being effective _._

She strode out of the office and into the front, jumping over the counter before she darted for the door. She didn’t want to still be here when the real chūnin arrived or when the counter chūnin came back, since the latter had acted like they were friendly with each other. She ducked onto the street in time to see the two chūnin in question reading Kiba and a group of boys that looked slightly familiar the riot act as several other shoppers looked on. Time to get out of sight before someone noticed there were twins.

She made it a half block down the street before someone grabbed her upper arm and dragged her into an alley. She squeaked in surprise and lost control of the transformation, which caused whoever it was to let go.

“Sakura-chan?”

She groaned and looked up into her teacher’s disbelieving face. “Hi Kakashi-sensei,” she said weakly. “I got the scroll back.”

“You got the – “ Kakashi-sensei’s face was scarily blank. “You impersonated a chūnin and broke into Morino-san’s office and _stole a scroll_?”

“You told me to find the scroll and meet you back at the memorial stone with it!” Sakura held the scroll in question up. “If you didn’t want me to take it, you should have said something!”

“I should have –“ Kakashi-sensei shook his head  and sighed. “Never mind, I was coming to tell you that I’ve been given a mission but should be back in a couple of weeks and didn’t have to _find_ the scroll. But since you’ve retrieved it, I’ll sign it and turn it in.”

She handed it over gratefully. He was going to sign it! Kakashi-sensei pulled out a pen and started to write. “I want you to work on your endurance, taijutsu and one D-rank ninjutsu of your choice, but I want it mastered by the time I get back. If you have questions about any of that, either Asuma or Kurenai should be back in town in the next couple of days.” He paused. “Now, are there any questions for me?”

“Not right now, Kakashi-sensei.” Sakura could wait, he seemed like he was in a hurry. He was going to train her.

“Right. I’ll see you in a few weeks.” And then he was gone in a swirl of leaves and Sakura couldn’t help it, she punched the air in celebration. “He’s going to train me!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, let me know what you think! And if anyone is interested in being a beta, let me know.


	4. Interlude the First

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Sakura does not appear (again) and Kakashi decides he's annoyed

He was, Kakashi decided, three days into his two week assignment, supremely annoyed.

First, because he’d let himself be talked into _voluntarily_ teaching a genin, even one that had as much potential as Sakura. He wasn’t cut out to be a teacher, something he’d known since his Chūnin days with Obito and Rin.

(There had been one – and only one – disastrous attempt where Minato-sensei had let Kakashi teach. There had been tears, not Obito’s, within an hour)

As he swept his way through the halls of the large manor that he was currently employed at, he began to put together the rough beginnings of a lesson plan.

(Just because he was annoyed with her – and himself – was no reason not to try to make this work. He’d need to work on her speed, since she was too small to ever be a powerhouse without using chakra and definitely her genjutsu, since her control was phenomenal for her age, even taking into account all of the clan heirs in her year and her civilian status)

Second, because this should never had been an issue in the first place. If a team was being dissolved for whatever reason, it usually fell to the senior member of the team to discuss and, if necessary, help find the junior members new spots. He was also the one that should have been notified, not her.

 (This had Koharu Utatane and Danzo Shimura’s fingerprints all over it and Kakashi felt his annoyance grow. He had never liked either of the councilors, given their tendency to go for the combative solution first, but his dislike of Danzo had grown to outright loathing in the wake of Minato-sensei’s death)

He took careful note of the windows, doors and the supposed size of the room, noticing that at least three of the lower floor rooms were smaller than their outer dimensions would suggest and resigned himself to a night of skulking to find their entrances. Avoiding the guards wouldn’t be any trouble – they were common mercenaries; formidable enough against civilians but not against a trained shinobi.

Third, he was going to have to fend off the elders – there had been a missive on his table (and he was going to have to reinforce  his wards, if just anyone could break into his apartment to leave annoying pieces of paper on his table) suggesting that he might perhaps consider rejoining ANBU or taking an apprentice in order to pass on some of his more… unique skills.

Which was the real sticking point, if he was being honest with himself. He didn’t like getting jerked around and he especially didn’t like it when people close to him – people under his protection, that depended on him – were dragged into it.

Especially since the attributes that elevated him above the other shinobi – his catalog of jutsus, his genius, his chidori – were all traced back to things that couldn’t be taught. Otherwise, he would fit in handily with the scores of other retrieval or assassination specialists.

So no, he was incredibly annoyed and as soon as he returned to Konoha (after he figured out where a vast number of local girls that worked in the manor had disappeared to) he was going to make sure that several other people were made aware of that fact. In detail.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, let me know what you guys think and if anyone would want to beta, let me know!


	5. Chapter the Third

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Sakura trains, makes new connections and friends, and the jonin don't actually appear in the chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the long wait and hope, if any of you were waiting for this, that you enjoy it. If you're new, I hope you've enjoyed the story thus far

Sakura gave herself nearly a half hour to bask in the glow of accomplishment that beating one of Kakashi-sensei’s tests gave her before she began to plan.

She knew that she could do this – if she kept sparring with Tenten and Lee her taijutsu and endurance would improve, the same if she sparred with Shino and the others like they had agreed. She raced up a wall and landed on the roof, heading in the direction of Iruka’s house. It was after school and there would be kids there, waiting.

 _I’ll start traveling by roof_. She decided, landing shakily before launching herself across to the next roof. _That will help too. And if I run in the evenings, like Tenten said, I’ll have muscles and endurance. But I need to find a ninjutsu._ But which one? She – and Naruto, but he was gone – had been the only two of the Rookie Nine that weren’t clan, that didn’t have libraries of secret techniques and older family to help them.

Her father was the first shinobi in their family, she was the first one in her generation even if she had six cousins following her into the ranks. They were merchants and had no special jutsus or even a specialization that they all focused on. They might, perhaps, in another generation or two, assuming that their children followed them into the shinobi path, but that wasn’t a guarantee.

 _Tomorrow._ _After I meet with Ino and the others, I’ll go to the library and find some to practice._ Well maybe after that, she could go visit her aunt; she hadn’t been to their house since… well, since before Wave. She felt slightly guilty, but in between her worry for Sasuke, Lee, and Naruto and helping her mother in the shop, she hadn’t had time. She hadn’t made time, if she was honest. There wasn’t much that she could talk about; her studies weren’t something that her aunt was comfortable with and Sakura didn’t have much interest in sewing and mending beyond the basics.

But she’d make the effort, because they were family and because if she left the village for any great length of time, she wouldn’t be forced to leave her belongings in the care of a teammate because there wasn’t anyone else to leave them to. So. She would make the effort and she could work with her cousins as they studied and tried to become genin. Maybe she could introduce them to Matsuri and the others, since she was sure they were in different classes. 

That was for tomorrow though and tonight, she was the one that was in charge of Iruka’s house until he came back. Or Genma returned - the jounin had been a nearly constant fixture at Iruka’s house for as long as Sakura could remember, if he wasn’t out on missions. Sakura moved closer to the great wall that surrounded Konoha since she had enough time (if she was fast enough) to get in a lap around the wall. As she ran towards it, she frowned in thought, before glancing down. If running on top of the wall would increase her endurance, than running on the side of it would only work better, right?

She hoped so anyway, as she launched herself towards the wall and twisted in the air so that she landed on her feet (she was parallel to the ground, this felt so weird) and took off as a dead run. She lasted ten minutes before she had to slow do to a jog. Sakura glanced back to judge how far she’d come and made a face. Barely a fourth of the wall. She huffed in annoyance and continued jogging, periodically checking her chakra reserves; right now, they were low, but not dangerously so; she could keep going for a little longer.

 _Of course_ , she thought as she dropped onto the sidewalk in front of Iruka’s house later, _I should have remembered that I had other things to do tonight besides collapse into bed._

Three of Iruka’s regulars – Matsuri, Joben Kurata, and Sofu Gakusha – were sitting on the porch reading what looked like one of the basic jutsu scrolls that Iruka kept on his book self but they glanced up when she landed in front of them.

“Sakura-chan?” Matsuri stood, carefully rerolling the scroll as the two boys stood as well. “Should we start dinner? We didn’t want to before you got here, since Iruka-sensei always worries.”

“Yeah.” Sakura nodded, pushing the door open and going in ahead of the other three. “Dinner would be good.” She needed the calories and couldn’t understand how other girls kept on diets. _Of course, other girls aren’t genin that train and burn more calories in a day than most civilians do in a week._ “Do you guys have anything that you want?”

A search through the fridge revealed that they would be having leftovers and that Sakura would be going to the store tomorrow at some point. Today must have been Iruka’s shopping day, since there wasn’t very much left in the cabinets. But there was enough for tonight, as long as no other kids turned up and if they did Sakura was pretty sure that Iruka had left enough that she could order some food in.

Dinner was quiet, none of them familiar or comfortable enough with each other to engage in more than awkward small talk. But when Sakura went to the backyard after they’d done dishes, all three followed her and watched silently as she started the staff positions that Kotetsu had shown her. She kept an eye on them as she moved through the motions, but didn’t say anything until she’d gone through two full repetitions.

“Do you want to learn a chakra building exercise?” She asked, turning to face them. Matsuri had asked her, so she knew the girl would say yes, but she wasn’t sure about the two boys. Although, judging by the expressions that they had, they were just as eager. “Alright, you’ve seen the adults on the roofs?” When they nodded, she continued, “Well, this is the first part of learning to do that. I’m going to show you how to walk up trees.”

“Trees?” Sofu wrinkled his nose. “How is that going to help?”

Joben was practically bouncing in place. “Because we have to control how much chakra we use, otherwise we’ll fall off or leave a dent in the tree.” He sounded excited and Sakura grinned as she remembered the much different reaction that her team had had to their sensei’s announcement.

Sofu had been staring at the distance between a tree branch and the roof with a contemplative look on his face, so Sakura hurried to add, “and if you guys do anything to get in trouble and get caught, I had nothing to do with it.” She didn’t think that Iruka would be upset, but a lot of chūnin didn’t have his sense of humor.

Matsuri nodded firmly. “We understand. How do we do it?” The girl set her shoulders as she waited for Sakura to start explaining and Sakura grinned. That was much better than Naruto or even Sasuke when she tried to explain something to them and as she walked them through the steps she felt the beginnings of something in her chest. She liked explaining things to people, enjoyed trying to teach them something that she got instinctively and she thought, maybe, as she watched Sofu shakily walk five feet up the tree, it might be pride.

*~*~*~*~~**~*

The next morning, Sakura tossed together lunches for the four of them before she raced out the door, trusting that the three Academy students would be capable of getting to school on time. They’d better be and anyway, that wasn’t Sakura’s problem.

“Do you have those exercises that you were talking about? The ones that Gai-sensei gave you?” Sakura blocked one of Lee’s punches, but didn’t see the kick until it was too late to do anything but roll with the blow. She turned the fall into a leg sweep as Tenten rummaged through her pack before pulling out a stack of papers.

“Here they are; do you want me to put them in your bag?” Tenten held them up and Sakura nodded before she refocused her attention on Lee. It would be pretty embarrassing to have to go to the hospital because she hadn’t been paying attention and she knew that Lee would feel bad. The fight ended a few minutes later when Lee pinned her to the ground on her stomach.

“Do you yield?”

Sakura sighed and let her forehead rest against the dirt for a few seconds. “I yield.” Lee stood and then pulled her to her feet. They bowed and Sakura jogged over to where Tenten had been watching from a boulder. The older girl shifted to make room for Sakura and then passed her some water.

“Did you find a time to run then?” Tenten asked, keeping an eye on Lee as he shadow boxed around the clearing. She’d get up and join him in a few minutes, but for now she stayed with Sakura, giving her a slight smile when Sakura nodded. “Good. Do it every day, even if you want to skip – I get that, but there isn’t any other way to even try to catch up with insanely strong teammates.”

Tenten laughed as Sakura flushed red. “I’m not judging. If anyone understands where you’re coming from, it’s me. In between Neji and Lee, I’m lucky to keep up, so I found something that neither of them can do.” Her smile grew smug. “Neither of them can touch my weapons.”

“At least you have teammates to help.” Sakura clapped a hand over her mouth; she hadn’t meant for that to slip out. She hoped Tenten wouldn’t press, she wasn’t up to talking about this with… anyone. Not yet.

Tenten sighed and bumped her shoulder. “True. But you have me and Lee and Neji won’t put up too much fuss when he comes back Monday. And what about your other friends?”

Sakura sighed before she took another drink. “They’ll help.” She drew in a deep breath. “You’re right. I have them and Kakashi-sensei.” Her fingers tightened around the canteen. “But it’s…” she paused, took another deep breath. “Never mind.”

Tenten watched her and Sakura could see sympathy in her eyes. At least she hoped it was sympathy and not pity. “Well,” the other girl started, turning back to watch Lee, “if you ever want to talk, I’ll listen. If you want.”

“Thanks.” Sakura bumped Tenten’s shoulder. “I will. Just… just not right now.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The library was as empty as ever and Sakura sighed, looking at the stacks. How was she supposed to pick a jutsu to learn? She gave the long rows another look before heading for the side chamber that housed the application forms. As she entered, the old woman from before looked up. “Back already? Did your jounin-sensei not sign it?”

“What?” Sakura started. “No! He signed it, but he was assigned a mission for the next two weeks so he told me to find a D-rank jutsu to work on while he’s gone.” She paused and continued. “I’m also supposed to work on my endurance and taijutsu.”

“And how are you going accomplish those tasks?” The old woman asked, setting aside whatever she had been working on. “Train by yourself?”

“No Librarian-san.” Sakura shook her head. “I’m doing training every morning and I have training spars set up three times a week in the afternoon. I’m also running the length of the wall every evening.”

“Very good. Much better than those idiots that spend their time shadow fighting the day away.” The librarian sniffed. “And it will allow you to work on your tactics, if not your strategy. But what brings you to me?”

“I was hoping for some suggestions on which D-rank jutsus I could learn in the next two weeks.” Sakura explained. “And you have more experience than me, so I was hoping you might help?”

The librarian stared at her for a few minutes before nodding, looking troubled. “I can do that. What is your goal?” At Sakura’s confused expression, she elaborated. “What do you want to accomplish with the jutsu?”

“Well…” Sakura trailed off as she thought. As tempting as it would be to try to learn one of the fancy jutsus that she had seen used during the chūnin exams and afterwards, she knew that those would be more trouble than they were worth for her right now. “Something that will help me survive.” She wasn’t a power healer like Naruto seemed to be and she didn’t have the speed, strength and training that Sasuke did. So for now, she would focus on living.

“Practical girl.” The librarian seemed pleased. “There are a few that also have offense capabilities. My favorite though, is the paralysis jutsu.”

“Paralysis?” That would definitely be useful. “Which section of the library is that in?” She’d get started on memorizing the hand signs today, practicing them without chakra until they were second nature before she’d add chakra to the signs and try the jutsu on a friend.

“I’ll show you the signs needed.” The librarian held up her hands. “Pay attention – I’m only going to go through this twice. Once slowly, so that you can see them and once at full speed.”

Sakura nodded, watching as the woman’s hands flowed through the signs. Ox, tiger, boar, rat. “It seems so simple.”

“All of the best jutsus are. Relying on jutsus with dozens of signs only work if you’re faster than the kunai that your opponent will be throwing at you. Best to be proficient in fast jutsus and alive, if unknown, than to have a long jutsu, be famous, and dead.” The librarian smirked.

That…was true, Sakura had to admit, even if she’d never thought of it like that. Only someone with supremely fast signing abilities would be able to utilize some of the A and B rank jutsus that showed up in jounin level fights. Which was probably why they only showed up in jounin level fights. Something else to add to her list of things to work on then.

“Thank you, Librarian-san.” Sakura gave a short bow. “For helping me, again.”

“You’re welcome.” The librarian waved her off with a slight smile. “Now get out and go practice that. Let me know how it goes.”

“I will!” Sakura bowed again before she ducked back out into the library proper and headed for the door. She couldn’t wait to talk to Ino. If she took the chūnin exam with them, this jutsu would be invaluable.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

But before she found the others – they had promised to meet up at around one, so that she could tell them how everything went – she had another stop to make.

The house was in the civilian sector, nestled in the shadow of Hokage Mountain in one of the older, more established neighborhoods. Sakura’s mother’s family was from here and had been for as long as the village had existed. But there had been no male heirs for the last two generations, leaving the actual state of the family’s position in flux. Only Sakura’s youngest aunt still held onto the family name. But since she hadn’t been in the village in years, Sakura’s oldest aunt lived in the family compound with her husband – a prominent stoneworker – and three daughters.

“Aunt Hana?” Sakura let herself in and glanced around. Her aunt rarely left the house, running her dressmaking business from there. Sakura’s middle cousin, Momiji, was being trained to take over when she was older. So they should be here, somewhere.

The Tsukihana compound was small, since it had never housed more than two or three families at any given time and while the Tsukihana’s had had large families, they had also tended to have only daughters, with perhaps one or two men per generation. So there had never been a need for large amounts of land. But what land they had was always beautifully cultivated, with gardens and raised beds of flowers everywhere, fostering a sense of peace for anyone walking through them.

Sakura wandered towards the back garden, keeping an eye out for plants that seemed wilted or dying. Aunt Hana would tolerate nothing less than fully healthy plants in her gardens but preferred to nurse a plant rather than dispose of it. It wasn’t unusual to see her sitting in her nursery, coaxing plants back to health, so Sakura headed there in the hopes that her aunt would be sewing there.

“Aunt Hana!”

There was a few seconds of silence before her aunt’s voice drifted over from one of the back corners, hidden by a strand of willows that surround a small spring. “Back here, dear, we’re in the middle of a commission, so you’re going to have to sit with us.”

Sakura trotted over and moved around the trees to where the small gazebo was tucked in between an old willow and the cliff face that she knew bent around to become the face of Hokage Mountain. This was the oldest part of the gardens, planted even before the main house and two small lesser houses had been built. The family story was that her great-great grandfather had planted all of it for his wife, a princess from Wind Country. Sakura wasn’t sure about all that, but she admitted that it did make a good tale.

Her aunt and cousin were sitting in the gazebo, delicate fabric laid on white cotton sheets that were spread over wood that had been smoothed down by family over the last century. Sakura perched herself on the railing, hooking her feet through the support lattice so that she could be sure that she wouldn’t overbalance, and just watched her aunt and cousin’s fingers move in steady motions as they  stitched cranes and butterflies on a pair of beautiful kimonos. She flexed her fingers, but didn’t reach out to trace the designs already done; her training roughened fingers would catch on the fabric and ruin it.

“How have you been, little one?” Her aunt asked after a few moments of silence. Momiji didn’t say anything but Sakura knew she was listening, soaking up the words. It was one of the first things that she’d been taught, before she’d ever even thought about becoming shinobi – how to listen while appearing not to listen.

Sakura huffed a short breath and told her aunt what she could, explaining about the letter from the council and how she had gotten all of the paperwork in. Her aunt didn’t interrupt, humming occasionally to show that she was paying attention. “But that’s not why I came.” Sakura shifted, twisting, her fingers together. “I was wondering if you would mind if I tutored Kaede, every now and then. If she’s willing,” she hurriedly added, because she didn’t want to force her younger cousin into something she might not want to do.

Aunt Hana regarded her, some emotion in her eyes that Sakura couldn’t quite place. “That would be welcomed – it’s hard for her, to be a civilian in the Academy.” Her aunt gave her outfit – still shorts and an old t-shirt – a once over and sniffed. “Why aren’t you wearing your qipao?”

“It’s not very practical.” Sakura admitted. “It’s pretty and I wish I could keep wearing it, but I don’t think my jounin-sensei would be very impressed.” And it was too bright, almost as eye catching as Naruto’s hideous orange outfit. She wasn’t to the point in her career where it didn’t matter if she dressed oddly or uniquely, like Jiraiya or Kurenai-sensei.

Momiji finished up the section of the kimono she had been working on and gently set it aside before focusing on Sakura. “Was it color or cut? Length? What makes it so impractical?”

“Um, well, the color is too bright, it doesn’t blend in much and the length and cut make it easy for it to get caught on branches and bushes.” She’d learned that pretty quickly in the Forest of Death. “So I need to find something different.”

Momiji drummed her fingers softly on her knee, her gaze going distant as she thought. It only took her a few seconds before she snapped back to the present. “How long will you be in the village?”

Sakura blinked, but answered readily enough. “At least for another two weeks. Probably longer.” Definitely longer, if Kakashi-sensei didn’t change up his training style too much. But she’d rather not say definitely and then have Kakashi-sensei haul them out into the wilderness for training.

“Good.” Momiji smiled at her. “Come back in a few days and I’ll take your measurements.”

“Measurements?” Sakura furrowed her forehead in confusion.

“I’ll make your new outfits up – you’re a Tsukihana and you need to look like it.” Her cousin was far too gleeful about the possibility to stick her full of pin holes, Sakura thought, as Momiji continued, “Besides, it will be a challenge. I’ve never made shinobi gear before.” Momiji’s voice was thoughtful before it turned brisk. “I’m going to need to research fabric options. How much variation and choice do you want? Maybe I should see one of your fights, so I can see how you move, so I know how much stretch you’ll need.”

“Um.” Sakura glanced frantically at her aunt, who had resumed working on the kimono. But Sakura could see her fighting a smile. “I don’t want to take away from your commissions or whatever other projects you might have.” She wasn’t sure why she was arguing with her cousin – Momiji was an excellent seamstress and dressmaker and in a few years she would begin taking over her mother’s orders and commissions.

“This commission is almost finished and mother isn’t going to need me for the next one.” She paused before continuing. “And this will give me a chance to try out some of the more…unique patterns in great-grandmother’s book. ”

Sakura thought about arguing, but her cousin looked so hopeful that she couldn’t say no. But she had to ask again, “Are you sure? Great-grandmother’s patterns aren’t going to be too hard?”

Momiji waved a hand dismissively. “Well, only one way to find out. So come back in three days.”

Aunt Hana smiled at her. “Why don’t you stay for lunch, dear?”

Sakura returned the smile. “I’d like that, Aunt Hana.”

*~*~*~*~*~*

Sakura made her way to Team Eight’s customary training ground after lunch, hoping that she wasn’t late – she’d only had fifteen minutes to get from the clan compound to the outer training grounds, but she knew that her roof route would speed her way. The others were waiting to hear how everything had gone after they had separated yesterday and Sakura didn’t want to leave them waiting.

Ino had been the one that had suggested Team Eight’s training grounds since, “Your team is the only one that’s all in Konoha, so we’ll meet wherever you usually do”. Shino had agreed and he had suggested that they also do a review, to go over what they could have done better and what they had done well.

Sakura was actually looking forward to it – most of Kakashi-sensei’s after action reviews had consisted of what (little) they had done right and what (mostly) they had done wrong, with no suggestions for how to improve. Which, now that she was remembering that, was making her question the wisdom of continuing to learn from him since he hadn’t been a very good teacher. But she’d gotten all of the paperwork signed and turned in, she was still a part of Team Seven, and she wouldn’t abandon her teacher.

“Sakura!” Ino waved her over to where the others were waiting as Sakura dropped out of the trees. “We just got here.”

“We” was all of the remaining rookie nine, who were spread out over the clearing but already moving towards her.

“Well?” Ino demanded. “How did it go? Are you his apprentice?”

“He said yes!” Sakura grinned before her expression fell. “But he’s leaving on a two weeks mission today, so I’m going to have to wait.”

“All the more time for you to improve and impress him upon his return.” Shino pushed his glasses further up his nose, the slight hum that always seemed to follow him gaining volume. “He is more likely to take you – and your training – seriously, if he believes that you are taking this seriously as well.”

“And Jōnin level seriously, not normal shinobi seriously.” Ino cut in, leaning over Kiba’s shoulder and using him as a support, if his yelp of protest was any indication, while Akamaru shifted so that he had a little more room. “Hatake-san is apparently crazy about training.”

“How do you know that?” snapped Kiba, shrugging her off irritably and retreating over to where Hinata was standing, her pointer fingers pressing against each other. Ino sniffed at him before flouncing over to where Chōji was standing.

“Because I asked my cousin right after we made genin.” Ino’s tone was enough to convey the _duh_ she would never say out loud. “He’s worked with Hatake-san before, so Fū told me that he spends all of his spare time – when anyone can find him – training.”

Sakura bit her lip before asking, “Did your cousin say what he trained on? Speed or stealth or… anything?”

Ino shrugged apologetically. “I’d didn’t think to ask that. I was more interested in Asuma-sensei.”

“Then we will start with one of those two.” Shino decided. “Unless you have another area in which you would like to improve.”

Sakura considered but ultimately shook her head. She didn’t know much of anything about Kakashi-sensei and what he would want to train her on, so it was better to focus on something that she would most definitely need later on.

“Speed.” She said. “Let’s focus on that.” It would help to augment her taijutsu, which she would also be working on over the next two weeks and sometimes being fast was of more help than being able to hide. Rarely, but it happened. “We can switch to stealth next week.”

Ino and Chōji held a huddled conference before they nodded that that plan worked for them and Sakura felt a little tightness in her belly loosen. She and Ino were… were still awkward around each other, too many years of honestly hating each other – over a boy that hadn’t given them the time of day – to be more than civil. It was just too ingrained in them to argue.

Hinata glanced between all of them and then said, soft voice firm, “Why don’t we play kakurenbo?”  
  
Kiba and Akamaru perked up instantly and Shino’s hum increased as Ino and Chōji glanced at Sakura in confusion. She shrugged – she didn’t know why Hinata had suggested the game.

And then Kiba punched Shino in the arm and darted into the trees, Hinata darting in the opposite direction. Sakura had one second of confusion before Shino was heading straight for her and she turned and dove into the bushes, leaving Ino and Chōji to sink or swim on their own – a fact not appreciated if Ino’s sudden shrieking was any indication.

What followed was…. Well, it was fun. Sakura hadn’t had a chance to play the shinobi versions of civilian games once she started the Academy and her few civilian friends hadn’t wanted to play them with her, arguing that her training was cheating (it was, somewhat). But spending the afternoon working on her stealth and speed with acquaintances that could grow to be friends… Sakura couldn’t remember the last time she’d thought of training as _fun_. Certainly before graduation at least.

*~~*~*~*~*~*~

The next few days were a blur of training, studying and taking care of Iruka’s house (the mission had been, she was informed when she went to the missions desk when Iruka’s estimated return had come and gone, been extended due to complications. Sakura tried not to worry). Genma had dropped by to eat dinner and let her know he was back in town for a few days, but that was the only interruption of note as far as she was concerned.

So she was honestly a little surprised when Momiji appeared on Iruka’s doorstep before dawn, looking irritated. Well, until she remembered that she had been supposed to submit herself to her cousin for measuring.

“Oops.” Was all she was able to offer weakly, since she had spent a good portion of yesterday in the hospital when Lee had misjudged a dodge while he and Tenten were sparring and wound up with a broken arm.

Momiji looked unimpressed. Kaede, standing behind her older sister and attempting to rub sleep out of her eyes, looked even less so. Sakura stepped back and Momiji strode into the house, gaze taking everything in and Sakura had to bite her lip to stop herself from defending Iruka-sensei’s house (it didn’t need it, in any case).

“The stepstool will have to do.” Momiji flapped her hands at Sakura impatiently, “Get on up there, so I can get measurements while you go over Kaede’s homework with her. I remember you mentioned having early morning spars, so shoo.”

Sakura blinked again but did what her cousin wanted, still not awake enough to really process what was going on. She was halfway through Kaede reciting the Shinobi Laws at her when she finally woke up enough to look at the clock.

“It’s not even six yet!” She hissed, mindful of the pile of Academy students in the adjacent rooms. Momiji jabbed her with a pin when Sakura attempted to twist around to glare at her cousin.

“And if you had showed up yesterday afternoon like you said you would, we’d both still be asleep.” Momiji jabbed her again as Kaede giggled quietly. “Besides, I did say that I wanted to see you spar, so this works out for everyone.”

Sakura subsided, disgruntled, and stood as still as she was able to while Momiji measured her with a thoroughness that seemed excessive.

(It probably was)

But as they walked towards Training Ground Two at a snail’s crawl, Momiji seemed pleased enough, so there was that.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“Why is she here again?” Tenten asked as she swept Sakura’s feet out from under her. Sakura managed to turn the fall into a roll and a handspring that helped her to avoid Lee’s attack, if only barely. Momiji was seated on a nearby rock and staring intently at the fight, pencil flying over a sketch pad that had appeared from out of nowhere when they had started sparring.

“She offered to make me a few new outfits, since my normal clothes aren’t exactly… practical.” Sakura kicked out and knocked Tenten off balance enough that she stumbled back and Sakura pressed her advantage, diving low and aiming for Tenten’s ankles – a crippling injury in a normal fight. It would have worked too but she’d forgotten about Lee and the boy landed a kick to her midsection, sending her skidding through the dirt.

“Why would she offer that?” Lee came in low and Sakura launched herself straight up. Not high enough, though, because Lee twisted midstride and caught her ankle, sending her tumbling into Tenten, who had raced in behind Lee, taking advantage of his bulk.

Sakura used Tenten as a launching pad and came back at Lee, blocking one of his punches and redirecting it to the side. “Because she’s my cousin and bored?” She kicked his knee and whirled around to use Tenten’s momentum against her as the other girl charged again. “I didn’t really ask a lot of questions. But she wanted to see how I move, so she could make the best fit.”

Tenten backed off and swiped at some loose hairs, brushing them out of her eyes. “Huh. Do you think she’d make me some?”

Sakura glanced back at her cousin before shrugging and launching herself at the other girl. “Probably. Can’t hurt to ask.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

She was the first one to Team Eight’s training grounds today and she immediately dropped into stretches because she didn’t need to pull a muscle – it’d set her back for at least a few days and she wasn’t sure she could afford that sort of delay. Not if she wanted to impress Kakashi when he made it back.

Hinata appeared next and joined her, somehow making the basic stretches look graceful – Sakura idly wondered if it was a Hyūga thing or just a Hinata thing. The two girls worked in silence for a bit, more from a lack of anything to say to each other than anything else, and Sakura finally decided to bite the kunai and make the first overture of conversation.

“Did you make that salve from the other day?” Kiba had ended the day more bruised than normal, thanks to a Team Eight versus Team Ten plus Sakura spar. At least they’d learned that the paralysis jutsu was a good substitute for Shikamaru’s shadow jutsu. So that was a plus. But the salve that Hinata had handed him had definitely been effective – most of the bruises had been significantly smaller the next day.

Hinata flushed red. “Yes. I – I enjoy working with medicines and herbs. It’s soothing.” Her gaze went everywhere but Sakura. “My mother was very skilled, before she died.”

“Oh.” Sakura wasn’t sure what to say to that, really. She hadn’t even realized that Hinata’s mother was dead and expressing sympathy for an event that had probably happened years ago and had surely been the talk of the village at the time seemed… cheap.  So, with that in mind, she moved on to the next thing that she could think of, “I want to try a new jutsu today.”

Hinata looked interested now. New jutsu were still a novelty – most of them hadn’t moved beyond the basics, since genin needed their jōnin’s permission to attempt a new jutsu and Hinata had probably already seen most of her family’s jutsus. 

When Sakura explained the jutsu, Hinata frowned and glanced around the clearing. “Maybe we should try it on something that’s not human.” She pointed off to the left. “Maybe the rabbit?”

Sakura nodded – she didn’t want to accidentally hurt one of her friends if she messed up the jutsu – and let her hands fly through the seals. There was a long few seconds where she felt the jutsu take before the rabbit stiffened. Sakura swiftly released the jutsu and the rabbit collapsed on the ground, limp.

She and Hinata stared at it for a long moment before Hinata spoke carefully. “I’ll see about catching some more rabbits.”

“Good idea.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

By the time Kiba and Chōji wandered over, there was an upsettingly large pile of dead rabbits, but Sakura figured she could skip out on buying meat for a while. So at least that was a positive. The two boys stared as Shino came up to join them.

And another rabbit collapsed.

Sakura bit back a curse and resisted the urge to throw a kunai at the dead rabbit. She didn’t know what she was doing wrong. Was she using too much chakra? She’d been using less and less each time, but the stupid, _stupid_ rabbits kept dying.

“Why are you using rabbits?” Kiba wrinkled his nose. “They die stupidly easy.” He sounded slightly insulted at the delicate nature of the species. “We should find something sturdier.”

Chōji frowned. “Like a cat?”

Kiba considered it and Sakura was almost tempted to insist on that – they could find Tora – but that would get them in more trouble than it was worth.

“We could go to the Forest of Death.” Hinata spoke up, glancing between them as Ino walked up.

“Why are we going to there?” Ino stopped suddenly. “It’s a death trap! Everything there wants to kill us, remember?”

“Hinata, that’s perfect!” Kiba grinned as Akamaru barked happily. “And Ino’s right – everything wants to kill us, so it should be tough enough that Sakura can’t kill it!”

Ino’s eyebrow headed towards her hairline as she took in the pile of rabbit corpses. “Does your family have a sudden blood feud with Leporidae?”

“Oh shut up.” Sakura huffed. “I can’t get this stupid jutsu to work.”

*~*~*~*~*~*

Getting into the Forest wasn't hard - the only thing keeping them out was the chain link fence and their own experiences with the place, some of which were worse than others.

But Kiba and Shino found them a decent sized clearing while Ino volunteered herself and Chōji to round up some of the local wildlife. While they waited for the two to come back, Kiba pulled out some of the rabbits that they'd sealed up for they headed over and started a fire as Hinata began preparing the rabbits.

It was quiet and Sakura watched as Team Eight moved like a well-oiled machine, wishing that her team had had that - but the only time they'd been on the road, on the way to Wave, dinner preparation had been punctuated by bickering (Sasuke and Naruto) and complaining (Tazuna). She'd been squeamish and had complained, but she'd also been the only one to not do anything the first time they were attacked and had used making dinner as a sort of apology.

A terrible, terrible apology, but it was all she had thought she had at the time.

She looked up as Chōji walked into the clearing, Ino slumped over his back.... Sakura yelped as a monster centipede followed him. She scrambled to her feet, hands already flying through seals and adrenaline causing her to use more chakra than was probably necessary. Ino groaned as she finished the jutsu and the centipede managed to get out one angry hiss before her jutsu snapped into place.

She held it for a ten count and then groaned as the monster bug collapsed to the ground.

"Huh." Kiba sounded nonplussed. "Are you sure that thing is a D rank?"

"I looked it up," Sakura snapped (it had been the first thing she had done when she realized that Iruka’s bookshelves contained scrolls upon scrolls filled with E and D rank jutsu. She’d been tempted to look at some of the others, but reminded herself she had a deadline) , glaring at the centipede as though her failure was its fault, "It's definitely a D rank jutsu. So why is it killing everything?"

Shino pushed his glasses up as he considered the corpse. "We should continue to conduct some experimentation before Sakura reanalyzes the practicality of this particular jutsu."

Ino huffed and then flapped her hand towards the fire and the roasting rabbits. "Fine, we'll get some more bugs. But I'm eating lunch first. I'm -" she glanced at Chōji and corrected herself, "-we're going to need the calories."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Four bugs later and Sakura was ready to scream. She needed to have two jutsus mastered in the next week and a half and she couldn't practice on her peers without at least a chūnin to supervise and there weren't any in the village that weren't buried in work. If she couldn't get this to work, there was nothing that she could do but start over - and there wasn't time for that. Even the most basic of jutsus took time to master to any great degree and she was cutting it close as it was, even with D-rank jutsus.

"Do I even want to know what you kids are doing?"

They all turned to look at the woman crouched on a tree branch thirty feet over their heads. Sakura's eyes were drawn to her purple hair, which was a few shades darker than her cousin Izumi's, and then to the jōnin grey of her uniform.

"Jōnin-san!" Ino was the first to recover. "We were trying to get this jutsu to work and the rabbits just weren't cutting it."

"Rabbits." The woman glanced at the remains of their lunch and then at the worms and Sakura can almost see the decision to not inquire further. "And which jutsu is that?"

Sakura swallowed (she hasn't really talked to any jōnin but Kakashi-sensei or Genma before) and spoke up. "The paralysis jutsu. I don't understand what I'm doing wrong!"

The woman sighed and dropped to the ground in front of them. "The centipede's chakra pathways aren't advanced enough to handle the jutsu." Her lips twitched slightly. "Neither, I suspect, were the rabbits'."

Sakura flushed - no one had mentioned anything like that! Not the scrolls, not Librarian-san, and she hadn't even stopped to consider that some chakra systems might not be advanced enough to handle the jutsu.

The jōnin eyed them all before she sighed again and glanced at the sky. "I have a little bit of time, so go ahead and practice. If any of your teachers complain, you can tell them that Yugao Uzuki was supervising."

Sakura couldn't believe their luck, that a jōnin would be willing to work with her (them), although she did privately wish that she'd appeared in time to save some of the rabbits. Iruka's kids were going to be entirely sick of the creatures by the time she worked through all of the meat.

The others looked at each other and shuffled nervously, not that Sakura could blame them. They had spent the better part of the morning and early afternoon killing everything she used the jutsu on. She could have hugged Hinata when the shyer girl stepped forward, but she wasn't sure what Hinata's thoughts were on personal space invasion.

She cast the jutsu.

Hinata gasped and froze, the only movement her muscles quivering as she instinctively fought the jutsu. The jōnin - Yugao-san - walked around them, taking in the jutsu with a practiced eye.

"You're applying just a bit too much chakra," she told Sakura, "try and dial it back a little. The less chakra you can do this with the better. Now release it."

Sakura did and immediately checked her chakra levels, to see how much of a drain it was on her, and was relieved to realize that it wasn't as bad as she thought it was. It was definitely less than it would have been even a few days ago.

"Can you do a few more or are you done for the day?" Yugao-san asked and Sakura immediately shook her head. Yugao-san might not be here tomorrow or might not want to waste what little precious free time she probably had on some genin.

"I'm good for at least two more." She decided, remembering that she was still technically in charge at Iruka's and Matsuri and the boys would probably be hoping for more tutoring. Yugao-san nodded and stepped back.

"Try it on me next!" Kiba bounded forward, coming to a stop next to Hinata. "I want to know if I can break it."

Sakura nodded and cast the jutsu and again and nearly gasped as Kiba began pulsing his own chakra in an attempt to break the hold on him - his efforts were quickly draining her chakra and she forced herself to release it before she drained too much. She still had one more time to go.

"Try it on me again." Hinata had stayed where she was and a determined look crossed her face. "I need to be able to break it too."

Sakura nodded and recast the jutsu. Hinata was subtler than Kiba but the drain on her chakra was actually greater and Sakura resolved to ask the other girl about that later. Maybe she could help her come up with new ways to increase her reserves.

"Enough." Yugao-san broke in and Sakura immediately dropped the jutsu. The jōnin continued, "I need to be going and you aren't anywhere near practiced enough to do that on your own yet." She looked Sakura over. "You need to work on using your chakra more efficiently, otherwise you're going to lose too much of your reserves catching and holding someone. If you do it right, you should be able to hold up to five people of comparable skill and chakra level."

Sakura stared at her. _Five_? She should be able to freeze and hold five people with that jutsu? She couldn't even really manage one if they were fighting and the idea of two made her want to curl up and whimper.

Yugao-san must have seen the look on her face, because she chuckled before bounding up into the tree and vanishing from sight, but not before calling, "And get out of the forest before you get eaten!"

*~*~*~*~*~*

By the time Sakura made it back to Iruka's house, she was ready to drop; she'd vastly overestimated her own reserves and was paying the price for that now.

But she hadn't forgotten Matsuri or Sofu and Joben. The three pre-genin were sitting on the porch, but they'd been joined by two other classmates that Sakura didn't recognize and... "Kaede, Motoichi? What are you two doing here?"

Her cousins looked at her, but it was Kaede who answered, "You told mother that you wanted to tutor me, so it seemed easiest if I came to you after school." She sniffed and gestured at Motoichi, "I don't know why he's here though."

Motoichi scuffed a foot on the pavement and didn't meet her eyes. "I thought maybe you could help me too? Joben was talking about it and I'm graduating in a month, I don't need a lot of help."

Sakura couldn't not help him, she couldn't. Not if she was helping Kaede and she knew how much it must have cost him to ask that in front of his friends, though they were mostly civilian and all of them knew how hard it was to get help besides from the teachers.

"Alright," She held up a hand when it looked like Joben was going to protest. "I need to start dinner, so I want everyone to make a list of five things that they think that they need help with in order to graduate."

Some of it she wouldn't be able to help with, but she had graduated recently enough that she could remember what was on the exams and what they would need to know. She could help with that.

She headed for the steps and then stopped and pointed at the two new girls, "You two, what are your names?"

"Mariko." Was a tall brunette with clan markings that looked like Kotetsu-san's and Sakura wondered if they were related at all. "I'm in Motoichi's class."

"Mae." was a pretty civilian girl with hair that was closer to Sakura and Motoichi's own bright pink, so Sakura pegged her as living in the Uzushio district. "I'm in Matsuri's class."

"Fine." Sakura nodded and fixed the names in her memory. "Lists while I get dinner started."

Dinner was easy enough, since she forwent meat in favor of adding some lentils and beans to the recipe, and by the time that she came back, all seven pre-genin were busy writing (or in Matsuri's case, rechecking her list). They looked up when she sank onto the couch and after exchanging glances, Matsuri was the one to speak up. "Are you alright, Sakura-chan?"

"Just tired - I was learning a new jutsu and didn't pay attention to my reserves." Tired was something of an understatement, she was exhausted and had barely made it back here wall running. "So tonight is just going to be going over book learning. We'll do tree walking tomorrow night."

She'd make sure that her reserves were high enough that she'd feel comfortable watching them walk up walls and know that if something went wrong she could catch them. Tree walking wasn't technically a jutsu, but Sakura knew that they were skirting the edge of the rule that there had to be a chūnin or jōnin present in order for a genin to learn a new jutsu.

"Okay." Matsuri shrugged and pushed her list towards Sakura and the others quickly copied. While Sakura read over them, looking for commonalities in the lists, Matsuri roped Mae and Kaede into helping her with the rest of dinner.

(There wasn't much, Sakura hadn't exactly prepped a five star meal).

Dinner was quiet - Sakura too exhausted to lead conversation and the others a little too awkward with each other (none of them, it appeared, where close friends at school) to carry on conversation. But after the dishes had been cleaned and put away (Motoichi and Joben) she sat down with them in the living room.

"All of you want to work on chakra control. Half of you need help with the shinobi rules and the other half on the basics in ninjutsu." This was a self-assessment and Sakura hoped that if there were any glaring problems that they hadn't reported she'd notice them in time to help. "And all of you want a leg up on the genin test."

They nodded and Sakura's lips twitched - if she'd thought about it and had had someone willing, she'd have been pestering them for information on the genin test too. But... "I'm not going to tell you about the genin test -that's unique to each jōnin sensei anyway - but I will do everything I can with the other requests."

She threw what remained of her free time into a shallow grave and buried it. Thoroughly. And even if she wasn't going to tell them about the genin test... maybe she could work the idea of teamwork into them anyway?

"Are you all in the same class?" She didn't think so, but if they were all learning from the same teacher than they'd be learning at the same pace and material.

"No." Mariko shook her head. "But today we all got combined and we got a new teacher."

"Oh." Sakura blinked - she didn't think that that would help anyone having trouble get extra attention and with the exams coming up in less than a month....

"And a new teacher." Motoichi scowled and sounded aggrieved. "He can't use chakra at all. And he only has one arm."

"He lost it in the war." Mae frowned at Motoichi before turning back to Sakura. "And Iwa shinobi messed up his chakra system really bad. He normally works at the mission desk."

"So we really need help." Sofu picked up and Sakura was pretty sure that they'd practiced this a few times and would have been amused if she hadn't been so uneasy. Sofu continued. "Could we let some of the others know too?"

"I already said I would.... and yes, if they want the help." She looked at them and then glanced at their papers, where a couple of them had written "taijutsu", "but I'm going to have to ask a couple of friends if they can help with the taijutsu and weapons, since those weren't my strong areas."

"Thanks Sakura-chan!" Matsuri gave her a relieved grin and pulled out her class notes to show her. "Let's start on the notes then!"

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"You want us to what?" Tenten asked as Lee cocked his head to the side in confusion.

"Apparently the Academy teachers are all being sent on missions and a lot of the students are worried about keeping up and managing to graduate." Sakura shrugged. "I told them I'd ask."

"Of course we will help the Youth of Konoha on their Quest to Improve Themselves!" Lee sounded far too enthusiastic for just having spent two hours sparring with two opponents.

(She and Tenten had teamed up against Lee. Neji would be back in two days and Tenten had wanted to get in a few more spars before Lee was distracted by challenging Neji every day)

Tenten looked less thrilled with the idea. "We both just got assigned to wall duty in the evenings, Lee. So we might not have time."

Sakura understood. It was one thing to work an extra person into an already existing part of your schedule. It was another thing entirely to attempt to rework your schedule. But Tenten sighed and nodded. "We'll figure something out, don't worry." She gave Sakura a wry grin. "It's not like we have anything else to do while we wait for Gai-sensei."

"Thanks Tenten-chan." Sakura beamed at her. "Thank you so much."

"Just Tenten and seriously, its fine." Tenten shrugged. "Anyway, it’s not really fair to the students, giving them someone that can't teach them. Sounds more like a babysitter than anyone actually useful."

Sakura couldn't bring herself to disagree. "I have to go to the library and see if I can find some of the scrolls or books that Iruka-sensei sometimes used, because I know we didn't spend the last month doing review."

Tenten nodded, "The last day maybe, but we were learning up until the test and pretty much everything was on the test, if I'm remembering right. Which I might not be."

Sakura nodded, "You are. So I need to find those books."

*~*~*~*~~*~*~*

Sakura stopped by her house first and dragged her stacks of notes out of her desk drawers - she'd kept them on a whim and had been getting ready to clean them out when Sasuke... when everything had happened. And after she'd gotten changed and dropped the notes off at Iruka-sensei's house, she headed for the store (again) after raiding the money jar for the last of the spare cash. She was going to have to figure out a way to get some D-ranks with or without Kakashi-sensei, if only so that she could buy some food if Iruka-sensei wasn't back soon.

And then the library. She had the Paralysis Jutsu and knew that she had it down - she needed to practice in order to refine it, but she could recast it if she had to - and she wanted another jutsu to impress Kakashi-sensei with.

She bypassed Librarian-san's desk and went for the scrolls; she didn't want to wear out her welcome by going to the older woman for every little thing and she wanted something that, well, looked interesting and not just useful. But also useful, she hurriedly added. Something interesting and useful.

It took her an hour to find the genjutsu section and another half hour to find the technique that she suspected that Kakashi-sensei had used on her during their genin test.

"Worst fear, huh?" She murmured, reading through the scroll on the technique. She remembered how it had felt, seeing Sasuke dying, dead, and wondered what she'd see now. Not that, surely. She wasn’t sure why she’d seen _Sasuke_ in the first place – surely she would have been more worried about her parents or her cousins than her crush? She frowned, thinking it through… maybe the jutsu used context to help feed the fear?

But the technique didn't look like it would take much chakra and it would definitely distract the enemy while she retreated.... She checked the hand seals and was pleased to see that there were only two. Snake and Rat. Nothing complicated and she could work on making sure she had the transition between the two perfect before she tried to find someone to work with her on it.

She hoped that would take too long. It wouldn't. Probably.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Did you talk to your friend?"

Sakura stopped and kept herself from gaping by sheer force of will. Iruka-sensei's lawn was covered in pre-genin. There had to be at least twenty and she turned to Matsuri, who looked slightly unsure, but determined to have her say before Sakura could do anything else.

"We all need the help, except for the big clan kids." She started and plowed on when Sakura didn't say anything. "We have to graduate and we can't get held back - the class behind us is even bigger. And Nakata-sensei can't teach and spends the whole day complaining that he'd rather be back doing paperwork!"

The last sentence was almost wailed and Sakura gave up. "Alright. Split into two groups - group one, work on your homework....." She trailed off when there was uneasy shuffling, "there is no homework, is there?"

"No." One of the boys in the back piped up. He looked like he might be related to Mariko, and thus, Kotetsu-san, but Sakura couldn't be sure. "I think that Iruka-sensei and Funeno-sensei left some, but Nakata hasn't given it to us."

Sakura stared at her notes and hoped that they were as good as she remembered them being. "Alright, never mind. Everyone head towards training ground five." If she remembered right, it was the closest one to Iruka-sensei's house. And it was big enough to get everyone into.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Tenten showed up almost an hour later, holding the note that Sakura had left stuck to the front door and trailed by Lee and two other genin.

"Why are we meeting here?" She demanded as they walked into the clearing. "What's wrong with Iruka-sensei's... Oh." Tenten took in the multitude of children. "That is slightly more than seven."

Sakura stood up and dragged the group a little way away to explain the problem. Tenten made a face at the end of it. "That... that really sucks. A lot." She nodded to herself and brightened. "It's a good thing that I brought help then!" She motioned to the two genin behind her.

"This is Jomei." The boy - tall, with spiky black hair and brilliantly blue eyes - nodded. "He's pretty good with projectiles and traps."

"And this is Matsu." The girl was shorter, nearer to Sakura and Tenten's own heights. "She's really good with jutsus and can probably help with the henge and shadow clone. They should all be able to do it on their own by now, so she should be enough to help out."

Jomei gave a wry grin. "We saw you in the chunin exams - our third, Kaya, got caught cheating too many times, so we never made it past the first stage. Our sensei was so mad."

Matsu nodded and let her gaze flit around the clearing. "We'll bring her with us next time. She's great with chakra theory and history." She cleared her throat and glanced at Sakura. "If that's alright with you, I mean. This was your idea."

Sakura blinked. "Why wouldn't it be? Even if some of us are good at the same thing, there are way too many for just us." We flapped her hands at the five of them. "This way we can give something closer to one on one."

Matsu nodded absently, still taking in the kids. "Yeah. Our team has wall duty in the morning, so we should be done in time to come over after the Academy gets out." She looked at Sakura. "And none of us thought about helping them and my sister is over there." She pointed at one of the girls throwing kunai at a target log. "You did. So you're in charge."

"Oh." Sakura hadn't looked at it like that. She'd just offered because someone had offered to help her. "Okay."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Having the two extra genin there helped out a lot and Matsu and Jomei both agreed to come back on Monday after school to help out and bring some more friends.

“The last two chūnin exams promoted three people, so there are tons of genin with lots of experience still in the village.” Matsu explained and tossed her braid over her shoulder. “We’ve all been getting assigned to fill in the holes that the chūnin and jōnin have left, but we should be able to work out something to help the kids study.”

 Jomei nodded, but didn't say anything and Sakura wondered if he and Shino would get along, since they were both so quiet. The older boy hadn't said one word more than absolutely necessary when he was helping the kids out, but he'd been patient, which they'd seemed to appreciate.

Tenten grimaced and nodded. "Lee and I got the orders for evening wall duty yesterday - I think that chūnin are still taking the night shifts though."

Matsu snorted and rolled her eyes. "I give that until they can get enough of us trained and then the only people up there will be genin. They need the chūnin for the C and B-rank missions."

Sakura blinked. She hadn't realized that things were quite that urgent, although the fact that the village had assigned a crippled shinobi to teach at the Academy probably should have clued her in.

Jomei shrugged lazily, rolling his shoulders, and Matsu's mouth twisted into... well, whatever the expression was, it certainly wasn't happy, before she turned to Tenten and Sakura. "We'll be back Monday and I'll ask around, see if anyone else is free to lend a few hours. Even if we're not getting trained, no point in letting anyone else's time go to waste."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Ino showed up on Sunday, as she was leaving Iruka's house and Sakura paused. She hadn’t expected to see her outside of the practices, to be honest – they were easier with each other, the insults gentler and less biting, but she didn’t think she had read the situation wrong, that Ino wasn’t comfortable seeking her out.

At least, she didn't think she had.

"Ino." She nodded politely. "Can I help you with something?"

Her friend looked at her and then back at the house. "Are you busy?" Her one time friend’s tone was mostly indifferent, but Sakura didn’t think that she imagined the hint of hesitation and discomfort in Ino’s voice.

"I was going to take my cousin to get his weapons for his graduation, but you're welcome to come." She shrugged. "You might remember something I missed."

The two fell into step, Sakura slightly ahead, since she actually knew where they were going, and walked in silence. Ino fidgeted beside her, but Sakura didn’t try and break the silence, knowing that Ino would get to whatever it was that had caused her to seek Sakura out eventually.

"You went to a lot of trouble to stay with Hatake-san.” Ino finally ventured. “I asked dad and he says that he couldn’t remember the last time someone filled out those forms. Why would you do that, he seems so…” Ino flapped a hand, trying to find the words, “….lazy. You could have come and trained with us. Why didn’t you?”

Sakura didn't answer for a moment, sorting through all of... all of the emotions, tied up with the decisions that she'd made - or had made for her. About whether she actually wanted to tell Ino any of it or even some of it. Tenten was closer to her and Sakura thought maybe the older girl might understand, at least some of it.

Ino... She didn't know Ino anymore, not really. But that helped her make her decision  - Ino had been a friend, once upon a time, and Sakura wanted that back, she realized suddenly. She wanted her friend back. She took a breath and decided to take that first step of trust.

"He's all that's left." She settled on. "Naruto's gone to train, Sasuke... Sasuke's gone. And he's the only one left."

Ino was silent and Sakura resisted the urge to say something hurtful, to try and regain the equilibrium that they had maintained for the last four years.

Ino reached out a hand finally, grabbing Sakura’s own and giving it a gentle squeeze. Sakura blinked back tears, remembering another time that the blonde had held out a hand for Sakura to take. She squeezed back, not sure what else to do.

Ino made a noise, as though she was about to say something, but fell silent as they reached their destination....

Uzushio District.

Sakura stopped when Ino did and looked over the District.

Uzushio District had started life out on the border between Konoha’s slums and the more respectable areas, given by the Third to the few civilian citizens that had chosen to come to Konoha – a couple hundred at most. Sakura knew that the majority of Uzushiogakure’s civilians had resettled into three coastal towns in the south and east, but that some had followed the few shinobi (mostly genin) that had survived.

Over the last three decades, it had transformed into a riot of pastel colors, with blues, reds and yellows being prominent and accented by purples, greys and whites, with laundry lines stringing from one building to the other and plants growing over balconies and climbing the buildings to cover the roofs. The older survivors said that it was to home what a painting was to the actual sunset, but that it helped to ease the ache.

Sakura scaled one of the buildings easily, hopping onto the roof and orientating herself using the Hokage Mountain and the Main Gate. The District had exploded along with the colors, now encompassing nearly four blocks square and housing nearly two thousand Uzushio civilians.

And they were Uzushio before they were Konoha, Sakura knew. They might live in Konoha and follow the laws, but once a person stepped into Uzushio District, they might as well have stepped halfway across the world and into a village long dead – most of her cousins and peers had never even set foot outside of the District and most, apart from the few that had enrolled in the Academy, had little desire to. They would live, marry and die in a four block by four block area.

Ino hopped up beside her and Sakura took off, darting across the roof and hurling herself over the gap caused by the street to the next one – it wasn’t as much of a challenge as it had been when she was younger, so she started to balance herself on the laundry lines, nimbly skipping over clothes pins and garments, while Ino followed, snapping something about broken bones.

 (Broken bones were just a fact of life - the only civilian children she knew that had never had broken bones were her cousins on her mother's side and their friends. All of her paternal cousins and their friends had as many broken bones as the Academy students)

But some of her best memories, before her father had started to take on more and more missions and her mother had gone on longer and longer trading trips, were running through the District with her cousins and the other children. Ino darted after her and the two girls quickly lost the other children, only to pick up another group two streets over.

"Hey! This is our running area!" The leader, a boy a few years younger than the two girls, yelled and Sakura laughed and dropped back until she was next to him.

"We're just passing through." She assured him - though she was definitely coming back. She'd forgotten how much _fun_ this was. "We're going to the Haruno house."

"Oh, that's alright then." The boy took a left and his friends followed, leaving Ino and Sakura alone again.

Ino paused, balancing on a laundry line - a woman leaning over to grab some of the clothes off the line glared at her as the line bounced - and Sakura landed on the nearest balcony.

"This is where your family lives?"

Sakura was honestly surprised that it had taken Ino this long to ask - she couldn't remember Ino ever refraining from questions that she wanted answered. She nodded, "My father's family. He and my mother chose to live closer to her family, since my grandparents were getting older."

There had been other reasons, she knew, that mostly boiled down to the fact that her mother had never been comfortable living with her husband's family.

Ino nodded and looked around again, taking in the neighborhood. Sakura wondered what she was seeing, but didn't ask - Ino would tell her, sooner or later. She took off again, crossing another street until she reached the street where the large families lived, the ones that managed to survive mostly intact. Her family's house (a multi-story, sprawling building that surrounded a courtyard on three sides and opened up to a view of the District Square) was newer, since they had settled in later than some of the other families.

She and Ino walked into the courtyard and Sakura headed for the nearest entrance. The first person she saw was her cousin Fumi, who was only two months older than her - they had been close once, but that had been before the Academy… and before Jurobei’s funeral.

"Sa - Sakura." Fumi glanced between her and Ino. "What are you doing here?"

"I was hoping that Uncle Hoshi was available. Do you know if he's here?" Sakura didn't want to venture any further into the house – she didn’t want to see Aunt Mari or have her aunt see her. But her Uncle had always been up with the sun, so she thought he would probably be awake; she just wanted to know if he was in his shop or here.

"He went to the shop - there was a new commission and he wants to get it done before the end of the week."

Sakura nodded and was about to leave when.... "Fumi! When did that happen?"

Her cousin blushed and tugged at one of the braids that had to be new - they were apprenticeship braids and Sakura wished her hair was long enough she could braid her own in. None of her friends would understand what they meant, but the Uzushio would.

"Last month. I've been accepted at the clinic, helping Hira-san with the children and babies." Fumi sounded proud and Sakura paused before digging into her pouch and pulling out some of her salves and one of Hinata’s tinctures and presenting them to her cousin – it wasn’t as fancy as a true apprenticeship gift ought to be, but she hoped that Fumi understood as she flung her arms around her cousin and hugged her.

"Congratulations!" She stepped back and beamed at her cousin. "We're going to go, but I'll swing by the clinic sometime and say hello!"

Luckily, her uncle's shop wasn't far - three streets over, a short distance that was barely an inconvenience - and before long, Sakura and Ino were ducking around the side to step into the workshop.

It was cluttered, covered in chunks of wood and with furniture in various stages of completion littering the floor. A pile of wood shavings was off in the corner, but Sakura knew that at the end of the day, one of the apprentices would have tossed it into a bin and set it aside to press into wood squares.

Her uncle, the only one in the shop for the moment, looked up when they walked in, his face breaking into a wide grin.

"Sakura!"

She grinned and moved to him - she hadn't seen him since right before the Invasion and missed him.

"Uncle." She stopped as he rose to meet her and she sank into his hug - she would have loved to have stayed with him, but Iruka-sensei had been her mother's choice and her father had agreed; he wanted her to fit in with her classmates as much as possible, which she would only do if she was as Konoha as possible. "I was wondering if you needed Motoichi this afternoon - I was going to take him shopping for his first kit."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Ino was silent as they walked back to Iruka's house - Motoichi had been thrilled that she had wanted to spend time with him and had been enthusiastic about pretty much everything; Sakura couldn't remember the last time she had been that excited about being a Shinobi. Maybe not since Wave, when she learned exactly what that meant.

"You've never talked about your family before." Ino wasn't looking at her and Sakura bit her lip.

"It's... My parents didn't want to stand out." Sakura admitted. "We didn't have much to do with them after I started school."

She'd been five and hadn't really understood why she wasn't allowed to travel across town to see her uncle and cousins, but then Ino had appeared and the Academy had taken all of her time and energy and she'd just.... drifted away.

"It was hard, for my dad, being a foreigner." Sakura continued. "He didn't want that for me. Bad enough my hair would make me stand out, but I didn't need to act different on top of all that."

She understood what her father had been trying to do. But now... she wasn’t sure she agreed with it. How would she have been different if she'd had friends like her cousins? Like the other Uzushio children? Would she have been quite so lonely and such an easy target for Ami?

*~*~*~*~*~~*~**~*

She was distracted the next morning and had the bruises to show for it - Neji had been back, for the first time in nearly a month, and had proceeded to beat her black and blue in between giving her tips laced with sarcasm and condescension that Tenten bolstered with actual advice that was useful.

But she lasted longer than he thought she would, so she took comfort in that as she walked towards the library, hoping that Librarian-san would be in today; she needed someone to help her with both of her techniques, otherwise she wouldn't be ready when Kakashi-sensei returned at the end of the week.

And she needed to be ready. He'd agreed to train her, she'd worked so hard this week, she wasn't going to let him find her lacking. With that thought in mind, she slipped into the side room and bowed slightly when the older woman looked up.

"Librarian-san, if you aren't too busy, could you please supervise me while I practice two D-rank jutsus?"

"Could I...?" The woman peered at her in irritation and then huffed out an annoyed breath. "Didn't those idiots hold anyone back?" She slid off the stool with more grace than Sakura would have expected - she looked like she was the Sandaime's age, if not older and she wasn't an active Shinobi - and came around the desk, pausing only to grasp a cane, the reason for which was obvious when Sakura saw her leg. She couldn't help a small gasp at the twisted bones and the shine of burned skin.

"I know, it looks horrible." The woman's mouth twisted in a wry grin. "It's as bad as it looks, believe me. Damn Kyūbi." She started for the door. "But you need someone to watch you so you don't kill yourself and I can't leave the desk unattended, whether people use it or no, so we're going to get you a supervisor. At least until your useless lump of a jōnin sensei returns."

"It's not just mine!" Sakura protested. "All the jōnin senseis are gone. And most of the chūnin, too."

Librarian-san didn't look impressed with that excuse. "I came into my own in the middle of a war, child. Wars and disasters. And somehow, the teachers - and their commander - somehow remembered that their first responsibility was teaching."

She walked out of the mountain and Sakura trotted to keep up with her - the older woman could move when she wanted to and Sakura followed; Librarian-san hadn't not helped her before, so Sakura trusted that if she said that she could provide a tutor, she could provide a tutor.

Their walk took them out of the village proper, towards the western wall, where there was more space and families had yards and gardens (for whatever reason, apartments were mostly built in the north and east, leaving the west and north for those that could afford the small patches of land that offered a chance for a garden or workshop).

"My husband's father's father was given this land when they settled the village." Librarian-san said suddenly, not looking at her. "They were Uchiha retainers that didn't live in the District with the rest."

It had probably saved their lives, Sakura knew. The Uchiha had had some live in servants and retainers that lived on the compound proper with the family and they'd died with the rest. There had been funerals, afterwards, for the civilian innocents that had been cut down with the rest. She'd attended one, for a cousin or an in law of an in law.

"It was nearly destroyed when the Fox rampaged through." Librarian-san sounded tired and sad, the kind that sank into your bones and stayed there, no matter how long it had been. Lots of the older members of Uzushio sounded like that, when they could be coaxed to talk about their lost home. "My youngest - he would have taken the jōnin exams that summer - he lost his right arm above the elbow and his knee was shattered. But he can still monitor you while you work." She paused and when she continued, the pride was obvious. "He still has a good grasp of the basics and there isn't a Konoha shinobi in the village that is better at seals than he is."

The house was a single story and Sakura estimated that there was at most five rooms - small, but not excessively so. But the pride of the property was a massive willow that dipped over one of the numerous small streams that ran through Konoha, providing the entire village and the trees hiding it with a clean, untaintable source of water.

The two walked up the small path to the front door and Sakura slipped off her shoes as Librarian-san walked towards the back of the house. There was a low murmur of voices and then a man appeared from one of the back rooms - Sakura assumed that it was a bedroom, but she wouldn't swear to it.

The man was average height with hair nearly as red as Gaara's, and the storm grey eyes that reminded Sakura of her uncle and Motoichi.

"I am Uzumaki Kotaro."

Sakura blinked and then blinked again, her gaze swinging from Librarian-san to Uzumaki-san in confusion. She'd thought that Naruto was an orphan, that he'd had no clan left to take him in. She opened her mouth and then closed it. She didn't know Librarian-san or Uzumaki-san and had no right to ask them about their family, dead or alive. So she'd wait and maybe look into it on her own.

The man continued, ignoring or missing her confusion. "Mother tells me that you need a watcher while you practice."

"Yes, Uzumaki-san." Sakura was not about to look at her good fortune sideways. "I'm learning the Paralysis Jutsu and the Hell Viewing Technique. I've had previous practice with the Paralysis Jutsu but this would be my first time trying the Hell Viewing Technique."

Uzumaki-san nodded and looked her over, leaning on his cane. "I can help you with those - my own jōnin-sensei was a Uchiha and she had a fondness for genjutsu." He paused and seemed to be remembering something fondly, if the slight smile was any indication. Then he shook his head and returned to the present. "Any taijutsu or fighting though, you'd be better served finding someone else to turn to."

"That's fine, Uzumaki-san. I have other people helping me with those."

Uzumaki-san's smile was wry. "Well then, let’s get started."

 *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Sakura spent the rest of the day attempting to learn subtlety - Uzumaki-san had laughed at her first attempt at the Hell Viewing Technique and had been sufficiently impressed with her Paralysis Jutsu. Well, he at least hadn't laughed at that one.

But she spent the rest of the afternoon being told that she wasn't anywhere near subtle enough with her application of chakra to use the Hell Viewing Technique efficiently. He taught her another Genjutsu instead, one that let her hide herself in copies that seemed to appear and disappear into the ground (she seemed to remember the Ame genin using that technique) and told her that she should practice with that genjutsu until her control was better.

Uzumaki-san did grudgingly admit that her control was miles ahead of where most genin of her age and length of service were and that she wasn't terrible to teach. Sakura tried not to feel smug - Uzumaki-san had been a tough teacher, but he'd reminded her of Iruka-sensei, if a little more grumpy.

Before she'd left for the evening - she needed to be there, for when the kids got out of school and wanted to actually go over what they should have been learning - he'd taken three books on psychology and two on the customs and traditions of Kumo and dumped them into her arms.

"Memorize those." He'd grumbled. "When you do, come back and you can read more."

Sakura had been confused as to why he'd given her the books on tradition (and how had Uzumaki-san even gotten those? Trade between the two countries was highly restricted and had been for at least the last decade) but had taken them anyway. He wouldn't have given her them for no reason, even if she didn't know what it was yet.

Luckily, teaching the kids wasn't difficult; between her, Tenten, Lee, Neji and Matsu and her team there were enough people to give the pre-genin more attention than they might have otherwise. And it was definitely less overwhelming than if it was just Sakura - she wasn't sure if she could have handled that.

And Matsuri and Joben had made dinner while she had dove into the books, flying through the ones on Kumo and going slower on the ones about psychology (she had to stop and track down a dictionary).

*~*~*~*~*~*

The next morning was almost as humiliating as the last one, since Sakura still couldn't even come close to touching Neji and Tenten had finally taken pity on her and taken over sparring with her while Lee challenged the other boy.

"How do you do it?" Sakura complained when they took a break, the both of them watching the boys utterly demolish their section of the training grounds. "Not even on their best day....." She trailed off and then restarted, determined not to let Sas – either boy’s absence get to her, "Not even on their best day could they manage that much damage."

Tenten snorted and barely flinched as Neji slammed into a boulder and rebounded off of it, taking a large chunk out and sending shrapnel flying. Lee had apparently come up with a new strategy that involved more dodging and less actually trying to hit Neji. Thus far, results were mixed.

"I find a goal that I can do," she shrugged and swallowed most of her water before she continued, "and I pick something that neither of the boys do. Lee is a taijutsu expert, Neji has his family style and I have my massive arsenal. You can't compare the three of us, we're too different."

"Oh." Sakura blinked and picked at the label on the water bottle that Tenten had handed her. She hadn't.... Well, it made sense and she was going to be as strong as the boys, just... not in the same way. Maybe not even in a way that they could beat. "That makes sense."

Tenten smirked. "Of course it does. I came up with it. Now drop the water - we've still got another forty five minutes to fill and your form on the tonfas is still terrible."

"Of course." Sakura sighed and tossed her water bottle on top of her bag before grabbing the weapons. "Let's get this over with."

Tenten patted her sympathetically on the back even as she picked up her bo staff.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

She made it to Team Eight's training grounds with time to spare and immediately dropped into stretches - if she didn't her muscles would be shrieking in agony by this evening and she still has to help out the pre-genin. She looked up when Team Eight appeared, but didn't stop, since they don't start training until Ino and Chōji appeared, which is usually a half hour after Team Eight.

Shino nodded at her and Kiba started speaking before she could get a word out. "We've got a mission! The Hokage told us this morning."

"What?" Sakura scrambled to her feet, stretches forgotten. "When are you leaving? How long will you be gone? Is anyone going with you?"

Shino blinked, clearly taken back by the sudden barrage of questions, while Hinata looked apologetic, before she answered. "We'll be leaving this afternoon and should only be gone a week at most. And yes, we've been assigned a chūnin to go with us as well. We'll be meeting them when we leave."

Sakura took a deep breath and nodded. It wasn't like they were just going by themselves - they would have someone there that knew what they were doing. Probably.

She had just opened her mouth to ask what the mission was - if it wasn't classified, of course, when Ino and Chōji arrived and Hinata had to start explaining again.

Ino listened and then nodded, as if to herself. "Alright, well, let’s get in one more training session before you leave and then Sakura, Chōji and I can work on our teamwork."

She huffed out a breath when everyone looked at her. "What? It's not like we didn't know this might happen - Hokage-sama needs all the jōnin and chūnin she can spare right now, so any mission to look for a hypothetical bug or its eggs that might or might not be able to track someone is obviously going to go to the genin. And if we're going to work together in the next chūnin exams." Ino stabbed her finger at Sakura when she looked like she might be about to protest. "We are going to be on the same squad Sakura-chan - we need to learn to work as a team. Which we are going to start doing. Tomorrow."

She smiled at them. "Today, we're playing tag."

The game was more intense than usual and Sakura couldn't say whether it was because they were worried about Team Eight, Team Eight was worried about their first "solo" mission, or because the anticipation was affecting nerves, but in any case, she stumbled to Training Ground Five nearly exhausted and covered in leaves and mud.

Jomei blinked, taking in her appearance and Sakura could almost see him debate whether or not to ask her before deciding that he didn't actually want to know. He gave her a slight grin and tilted his head towards the practice posts. "Matsu is going over form and aim, if you want to help her. Koji," A brown haired boy standing behind Jomei gave a small wave. "And I have the book stuff today."

Sakura headed in that direction immediately and hoped that Iruka's mission, now nearly a week overdue (it was lengthened, she assured herself, it’s not because anything had gone wrong) was wrapped up soon, because she was starting to get overwhelmed. She had no idea how he managed this.

Matsuri and the others faltered slightly when they saw her but didn't actually stop their practice and Sakura came to a stop next to Matsu and Tenten, who both looked her over, their eyebrows rising.

"Tag." Sakura said and they both nodded, Matsu with slightly more understanding than Tenten, whose team wasn't really set up for a good game of tag. "Anything going on here?"

Matsu shrugged, "Not really. They might all pass the exam with flying colors, which will be a small miracle and Jomei and Lee decided that tomorrow we're dividing them into teams and refereeing squad fights."

Sakura wanted to whimper. Refereeing sounded like a nightmare, but if the others were up for it, she wasn't going to stop them. She'd agreed to help, even if it had blown completely out of proportion. Maybe Iruka-sensei or Kotetsu and Izumo-san would be back by then. Or even Genma-san. She was pretty sure that their mission deadlines were soon.

She called a halt to the training as the sun started going down, shooing away those kids with families at home and collected the five that would be staying at Iruka's house again. Matsuri walked beside her, looking pleased with herself as she played with her kunai (for the last bit of the day, Jomei and Koji had showed off some trick moves that were more flashy than practical, but Sakura couldn't blame them - they were fun to do and doing something, anything to let off steam was understandable).

Dinner was quiet as all of them were absorbed in their own thoughts and Sakura retreated to a corner of the living room with her psychology books and dictionary immediately after dishes - she was going to get this right or at least she was going to have some grasp of what she was doing wrong.

 _~_ ~ _~_ ~ _~_ ~ _~_ ~*

Uzumaki-san was waiting for her when she showed up the next morning and Sakura handed back four of the five books to him (she was still struggling through the fifth, a large volume on PTSD and the effect it had on the families of people suffering from it) and waited for his verdict.

He raised an eyebrow but took the books carefully, balancing them in the crook of his elbow as he headed towards the willow. "When does your jōnin-sensei get back?"

Sakura did the math quickly, adding up days and, "Within the next two or three days." She hadn't realized how long it had been - she'd been too busy and she bit back a small sliver of panic. She'd improved over the last two weeks, she had. There was nothing wrong with her progress.

Uzumaki-san nodded and jerked his chin towards the stream. "Start doing the jutsu I showed you the other day while I put these up. If you get that down enough today, we can start on the Hell Viewing Technique tomorrow or the day after."

Sakura nodded and began, sending out as little chakra as possible. By the time that Uzumaki-san had returned with another three books (Two on Suna and one on mob mentality) she thought she had mastered the minimal amount of chakra needed to maintain the illusion without making it obvious.

"Good." Uzumaki-san sounded pleased as he carefully placed the books on the ground by the tree. "Now - do it again."

She spent the rest of the morning alternating between the genjutsu and the Paralysis Technique.

 _~_ ~ _~_ ~ _~_ ~ _~_

She was exhausted when she made it to Iruka-sensei's house (early today, for the first time in a week) and almost missed the chakra signature from inside the house. She paused trying to identify it, but she'd only just started identifying people by their chakra within the last month and still wasn't confident with it. She hesitated for a moment and then started moving forward. Whoever it was had probably sensed her already and standing around wasn't going to get dinner made, so there wasn't any point in standing around.

"Hello?" She toed off her shoes and headed deeper into the house, holding a kunai loosely in her hand - no point in being stupid, after all - and keeping an eye on the doors as she passed them.

Iruka-sensei stepped out of the kitchen, looking exhausted, and gave her a welcoming smile. "Sakura-chan, how did everything go?"

Sakura thought about the group of pre-genin that swarmed the house right after school every day and her training that she'd almost been unable to do and her friends agreeing to help her shrugged, "It was alright." She paused. "Busy. I've - We've - Some friends and I have been helping Matsuri and her class since their replacement sensei isn't the best."

Iruka-sensei frowned at her. "Replacement sensei? Where's Funeno-san?"

"I don't know." Sakura shrugged as they entered the kitchen and Iruka immediately began making dinner, Sakura chopping as she was directed. "Matsuri, Sofu and Motoichi all said that the classes have been merged together because most of the teachers are gone."

Iruka let out a long, slow breath that was a prelude to him getting irreversibly annoyed and continued pulling food out of the fridge. "How long has this been going on?"

Sakura pursed her lips and counted back the days. "Since Thursday or Friday? I mean, Matsuri, Motoichi and the others came on Thursday, but everyone else showed up Friday."

"Well, that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be." Iruka muttered (Sakura didn't think she was supposed to respond to that and kept her mouth shut. "Are they all coming over tonight?"

"Right after school." Sakura confirmed. "Tenten, Lee, Matsu and few others are coming to help - we've just been using my notes to help them review."

Iruka gave her an approving smile. "That's good - I remember you were always an excellent note taker." He sighed. "I should be back in the village for the foreseeable future but I'll watch what you're doing and I might ask you to continue tutoring."

Sakura almost agreed immediately, but caught herself, "Kakashi-sensei should be back by Friday, so I'm sure what he'll have me doing."

"I'd forgotten about that, but if you or the others can help, it would go a long way towards easing my mind." Iruka gave her a wry smile as he started heating the food. "Everything is hectic right now."

"Alright." Sakura suddenly bounced as she remembered, "Iruka-sensei, I found someone to help me learn some new jutsus! He's really good with genjutsus!"

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Iruka-sensei seemed impressed with what they were doing, stopping them occasionally to correct a stance or to explain a concept in more detail. Matsuri and the others were happy to have their teacher back, but Matsuri tracked Sakura down during the training to make sure that she would still be helping them.

"Iruka-sensei is going to be busy," Matsuri sounded resigned and Sakura couldn't disagree. The village had only just started to make a dent in the rebuilding efforts and Sakura knew that the international efforts had only just begun - a betrayal by a nominal ally would have been bad enough, but the fact that the village had been invaded by both said ally and a village that had been dismissed as not worth noticing meant that Godaime-sama had to been scrambling to make Konoha seem like they were as strong as they had ever been.

"On the evenings that I'm free I'll be at Iruka-sensei's house." Sakura assured her. "I'm not going to leave the job half done." And she wouldn't - she owed it to them.

Matsuri gave her a bright grin, her eyes lighting up. "Thanks Sakura-chan! We won't let you down!"

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

She gained permission to practice the Paralysis Jutsu on her own the next day, after Uzumaki-san had had her practice on several of his clones and the neighbor's three children. Sakura had managed it, despite the worried civilian woman hovering behind her, watching her children like a hawk.

The kids thought that the jutsu was hilarious and tried to see which one of them could get their faces into the funniest position before she could freeze them, but Sakura was too aware of what she could do if she slipped her control - the rabbits were still a vivid memory.

"You're not too terribly incompetent," Uzumaki-san sounded grudgingly pleased with her, when she gave him back the psychology book and took another one in exchange. She hated to admit it, but the books he gave her were fascinating - she'd never even thought about half of what the books talked about and she wanted to know more. "Come back tomorrow and we'll start going over the Hell Viewing Technique, now that you've got a basic grasp on psychology - we're going to work on cold reading your opponent."

"A cold reading?" Sakura thought she knew what that was, but she wanted to be sure.

Uzumaki-san snorted. "A cold reading is.... you run into a shinobi from.... let's say, Iwa. What sort of fear would you try to tap into? You can't just hope that your genjutsu will grab his worst fear, you need to direct it."

Sakura bit her lip as she considered. "I - I'm not sure." She admitted. She only knew the basics about the country and almost nothing about the actual people that lived there.

"Iwa shinobi are almost entirely Earth natured, so claustrophobia and anything to do with the earth is more likely than not going to fail. They live on an open plain, without any trees for hundreds of miles, so agoraphobia is also unlikely to work."

Sakura tried to grasp the idea of that and failed. She glanced reflexively at the trees around her, to assure herself that they were still there. Uzumaki-san noticed and smiled thinly before continuing.

"Most Earth Country folktales and superstitions tap into a fear of heights, of falling, of line of sights vanishing." Uzumaki-san sounded like Iruka-sensei when he was talking about a subject he particularly enjoyed. "So you want to direct the jutsu towards that, subtly, of course, always subtly, so that it barely teases at the edge of their senses."

Sakura wondered what Kakashi-sensei had tapped into, that afternoon of the bell test - her worst fear had certainly not been Sasuke dying, though that had been _a_ fear.

"Oh." Sakura hadn't thought about the mechanics of genjutsu when she had picked up the scroll, only the fact that it was familiar to her, but now.... "Is that why there aren't that many genjutsu masters?"

Uzumaki-san snorted and gripped his cane a little tighter, "That's why there aren't that many genjutsu users in Konoha," He corrected. "Mist and Keys both produce some of the best Genjutsu masters in the world - Keys more so than Mist. If they weren't so tiny, I don't doubt that someone would have wiped them out by now." He paused, mouth twisting into a half grimace. "Assuming that anyone could find them, that is."

Sakura thought this over as Uzumaki-san handed her more books and some more as she meet up with Ino and Chōji.

"So.... what are we doing today?" Chōji looked awkwardly between the two of them and Sakura shrugged before looking at Ino - this wasn't her team and any position she took on it would be temporary, so she was content to let Ino take the leader position.

"Sakura, can you use your Paralysis Jutsu now, or do we need to go bother one of my aunts or uncles?" Ino pursed her lips and Sakura knew that she was going through the large, large list of older relatives that were retired or on the injured list - almost every one of Ino's relatives was or had been an active shinobi at one point.

"Its fine, I got my proficiency yesterday." Uzumaki-san had promised he would make a note in her file, at least until she made chūnin and was considered responsible enough to not kill herself while learning a new jutsu.

Ino's eyes lit up. "Good." Her smirk was almost wicked. "You can practice freezing Chōji long enough for me to slip in and he can try and break free."

Chōji didn't look happy with this training plan, until Ino sighed and added, "And my grandmother promised to make us dinner tonight, since mom and dad are both on missions."

Sakura took a breath and let the jutsu go. Ino immediately flashed through her own hand signs and collapsed back against the tree she was standing under. Chōji grimaced for an instant before his face smoothed out and Sakura hissed as chakra flared, slamming against her own and straining her control - she gritted her teeth and kept control, because if she lost control of the jutsu she'd definitely wind up with a headache at the very least.

At the end of the day, Sakura was feeling more confident - she'd only lost the jutsu twice - her head was pounding and she hoped that Iruka-sensei had aspirin. She winced as the sun hit her eyes - she really hoped that Iruka-sensei had aspirin.

"Good job." Ino looked pleased. "Now we need to find someone to spar with so we can come up with strategies."

"How about Tenten's team?" Sakura offered before she could think better of it. "Their sensei is out on missions too and they might be willing to spar."

"Who?" Ino frowned, clearly trying to recall who Tenten was - Sakura didn't blame her, they were both out of the tournament before Tenten had fought Temari and she didn't remember seeing Tenten in the stands during Neji's fight.

"Neji-san's team." That was a fight that they would both remember - Naruto tended to make impression.

Ino's expression cleared as comprehension crossed her face. "Do you think so? Shikamaru said that his teammates' fights weren't bad, even if they both lost. Bad match-ups apparently."

"Very bad." Sakura winced as she recalled seeing Lee in the cast, unsure whether he would walk again, let alone be able to return to being a shinobi. "But they might be willing and I spar with them in the morning - I can ask them tomorrow."

"Sounds good to me." Ino grabbed her arm and pulled her in the direction that Chōji had started in. "Come on, Shikamaru and Asuma-sensei both said we should have regular team meals and you're a member of the team, so you're coming."

Sakura laughed but followed - Chōji was apparently picking today and his family knew all of the best hole-in-the-wall restaurants in the city, of which there were a few - and she was looking forward to spending some time talking with her friends.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Matsuri and the boys - Joben and Sofu - were staying for dinner again and Sakura watched them climb trees as she ran through Kotetsu-san's staff forms; Iruka-sensei was at the school, having stopped by for dinner before heading back, presumably something to do with the fact that almost all of the teachers had been pulled from the Academy in favor of running missions.

"Not so much chakra, Joben!" she reminded him, wincing as he fell backwards. Luckily he was far enough up that he could manage to turn the fall into a controlled landing. He hit the ground and nodded at her before running back up the tree.

"What's this? I leave for a week and a half and come back to you teaching?"

Sakura turned and gave Kotetsu and Izumo both a welcoming grin. "Welcome back! How was your mission?"

"Long." Kotetsu ruffled her hair. Sakura made a face at him, but endured the abuse of her hair.

Izumo made a face, "About to get longer. We have a week of prison rotation starting tomorrow, remember?"

Kotetsu sighed. "Don't remind me. I was hoping for at least a few days off." He looked at her hopefully, "I don't suppose that Iruka has any leftovers?"

"In the fridge." Sakura hesitated, "And if you're not too tired, could you show me some more with the staff? I think I have the basics now."

"I can do that," Kotetsu assured her, "Izumo'll keep an eye on your kids while we do."

Izumo heaved a put upon sigh even as he gave the three pre-genin a once over. "I don't really think I need to, but sure, I'll make sure they don't crack their heads open."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The next morning was bright and slightly humid as Fire Country summer began to roll in; within the next three weeks, the heat would start to climb and the humidity would begin to creep towards unbearable. Sakura meet up with Tenten and the others, managing to get the request out in between bouts (most of which she lost, but she was holding her own far better than she had even two weeks ago).

Tenten frowned and exchanged glances with Neji and Lee before turning to Sakura, “We’d like to, but I don’t think that we have time – we’ve gotten tapped to spend more hours on the wall.”

“Oh.” Sakura tried not to show her disappoint, but couldn’t quite manage it – she enjoyed sparring with Tenten’s team and if they couldn’t she wasn’t sure what she, Ino and Chōji would do.

“Matsu’s team is more equal to yours in terms of strength and their wall schedule should leave them free in the afternoons.” Neji said, looking at her from where he was going through some cool down stretches. Sakura felt slightly foolish – she hadn’t even considered Matsu and her team or perhaps Koji and his team.

Tenten gave her a slight smile. “They’re good – they’re from the class right before ours, but their jōnin-sensei waited until this last exam to put them in. He wanted to give them the best chance possible.”

“Thanks Tenten, Neji-san.” And Sakura was thankful. “Do you know where I could find them?”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Matsu, it turned out, lived in the shinobi sector with four generations of her family - her grandparents, her parents and her father's siblings (three), her siblings (six) and cousins (nine) and their children (only five so far). The house was a riot of noise and laughter as the nearly thirty people that crammed into the three story house.

"Sure, I don't mind." She said cheerfully, as she grabbed a younger cousin (Sakura thought) around the middle and hoisted him up. The boy howled and wiggled as he attempted to escape Matsu's ever adjusting grip. "I'll ask Jomei and Kaya - Kaya shouldn't mind, she's wanted to get some more practice in before the next one, but most of Jomei's family is like mine - shinobi - and they need him to help with the babies while the others run missions."

If Jomei's family was anything like Matsu's Sakura could see the issue - with only Matsu, her grandparents, and a handful of older cousins to help out, keeping up with the children and the upkeep of the house had to be a challenge. She thought guiltily of her own house and made a note to stop and check on it; she hadn't been back since Naruto left and she should make sure that nothing had broken or been damaged.

"Well, we'll be meeting at Training Ground Eight in the late mornings and early afternoons if you can." Sakura dodged two girls that ran by covered in paint and followed by a boy she thought she recognized from the after school training. "I'll let Ino and Chōji know that you might be coming."

"Sounds good." Matsu grinned and dumped the struggling boy into a tub and Sakura winced as the howls got louder. "See you there."

Sakura fled before one of Matsu's terrifying grandparents pulled her into helping with the early morning washing. She wanted no part in that - she had other plans for her day.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The other plans were meeting up with Uzumaki-san for practice on the Hell Viewing Technique before Kakashi-sensei returned from his mission, probably tomorrow since he had told her two weeks.

Uzumaki-san had her attempt to place him under the jutsu and then would break it, asking her what she had been focusing on when she had started crafting it and why that feeling or image. He quizzed her on the books she'd been reading - and when she answered to his satisfaction "Well, you're twelve, once you get a little more mature your answers will change, but for a twelve year old, you're doing fine" he gave her some more.

Sakura carefully set the books to the side and refocused on the genjutsu lesson - she knew that this was above and beyond what Librarian-san had intended when she had brought her here and she was grateful. She knew that she was classed as a genjutsu type, due to her chakra control and her high intelligence, the only one in her class to be assigned that designation, but that Kakashi-sensei had never focused on that with her, preferring instead to have her work on endurance and her reserves while he worked with Sasuke-ku... with Sasuke.

So she listened as Uzumaki-san lectured her on types of fear and cultural sensitivities and how the two could be combined to devastating effect.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

She made it back to Iruka-sensei's house just before dark, having finally made an entire lap around the wall, running on its face instead of the top and was exhausted. Iruka had left her a bowl of food in the fridge and she devoured it and went hunting for more - she was starving.

She was also ready for whatever Kakashi-sensei might throw at her. Well, probably not, Kakashi-sensei had a creative sadistic streak that had been in evidence during their countless D-ranks, but she was more confident in her ability to adapt to whatever he might throw at her. And that was what really counted, she thought.

The girl that had screamed and fainted during the bell test was miles behind where she was now and Sakura didn't miss her. That girl couldn't have handled the Invasion and the Forest of Death and wouldn't have ever considered being friends with Ino again or even getting to know Matsu or helping Matsuri and the others.

No, Sakura didn't miss the girl she used to be.

And tomorrow, she would be able to show Kakashi-sensei just how much she had changed while he was gone. She'd prove to him (and herself) that she was worth training.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, after a roughly six months of not getting this out, the next chapter is done and I'm shooting for a once a month update schedule, so the next chapter should be out roughly around July 16th. I apologize, especially if anyone was subscribed to this story. 
> 
> In this story, as introduced in this chapter, there are going to be OCs, either as other genin, pre-genin or Sakura's family, so they aren't just going to be in the chapter, just a heads up. Good news though, Kakashi should be back next chapter!
> 
> As always, please review and let me know what you think! I love (polite) feedback.
> 
> And if anyone wants to beta the next chapter, please let me know.


	6. Chapter the Fourth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which there is is worrying, a prison break, and Kakashi finally reappears

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you, elenathehun, for beta reading this!

Kakashi-sensei was three days overdue.

Sakura tried not to worry; Kakashi-sensei was a jōnin, he was... well, he was Kakashi-sensei. So she kept busy, working with Tenten, Lee and Neji (mostly Tenten, but Neji agreed to a spar with her. It ended with her face down in the dirt and wondering if she'd been run over by a wagon) and working with Uzumaki-san.

The older man drilled her on psychology terms and cultural norms in the other countries (he never asked her about countries she hadn't studied yet, but expected her to remember everything she had already learned) and Sakura loved it - this was what she was good at, this was where she had always excelled.

But Kakashi-sensei was still late and Sakura didn't know what to do - did he manage to turn in their paperwork? She had thought he had, but... maybe she shouldn't have assumed. Should she ask? Was she going to get in trouble if he hadn't?

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“You were distracted the entire time, For – Sakura! What’s going on in that big head of yours?”

Sakura swatted her friend’s hand away when it poked her temple and kept her gaze on the clouds. “It’s nothing important Ino.”

“Not impor -!” Ino rolled over onto her side and narrowed her eyes at Sakura. “You almost knocked - !”

“Ino.”

Sakura blinked. She’d never heard Ino stop talking that fast before.

Chōji continued, “It’s fine. Sakura’ll tell us when she wants to.” He was lying down in the third point of their triangle, eating a bag of chips and occasionally passing one to Ino and then to Sakura.

Ino huffed impatiently but went back to looking at the clouds. Apparently this was something that Team Ten did after each training session, but with Shikamaru and Asuma-san gone, Ino said that it hadn’t felt right, with just the two of them.

Chōji had been the one to invite her to join them, about halfway through their two on one spar (Ino had been learning a new jutsu from her father and had just gotten permission to try it on people. Chōji and Sakura had volunteered to be her test subjects. Sakura was regretting it now – the Mind Destruction Jutsu, on top of being a jutsu that forcibly took control of the target’s body also left the target with a headache of heinous proportions) that afternoon.

Sakura watched the clouds float by for a minute before speaking. “Kakashi-sensei is three days overdue.”

There was a pause and Chōji spoke before Ino. “Asuma-sensei was due back four days ago.” He paused and Sakura could hear the crunch of chips. “We don’t know when Shikamaru is supposed to be back.” More crunching and then, “Do you play Shogi?”

“No?” Sakura was slightly thrown by the seeming non sequitur. More so by Chōji’s disappointed sigh afterwards. “Sorry?”

Ino tilted her head backwards until she could see the top of Chōji’s head. “Why do you want to know?”

“Because if she can play Shogi, then Shikamaru will stop asking _you_ to.” He tossed a chip into the air and Sakura could hear the crunch as Ino caught it in her mouth. “Me too.”

Sakura opened her mouth and didn’t even have to shift her head – Chōji’s aim was that good. “I could learn, I guess.” She sounded doubtful even to her own ears. “I don’t think I’d be much of a challenge for him though.”

“No one is.” Chōji sounded reassuring. “But Shikamaru won’t really mind and he’s like Iruka-sensei anyway, so you should get better in no time.”

Sakura wrinkled her nose as she tried to find the commonality between Iruka-sensei (hard working, friendly, always willing to help) with Shikamaru (lazy, snarky and avoided work like it was diseased). “Huh?” was the best she could manage.

Chōji seemed to understand. “He’s really good at explaining things so that I understand them. So Ino does too.”

Sakura glanced at Ino for confirmation. Not that she didn’t believe Chōji, but he had been friends with Shikamaru since they were in diapers, so that might be a Shikamaru could speak Chōji as opposed to Shikamaru was good at explaining things in general. Ino gave her a thumbs up and stuck out her tongue, so Sakura rolled her eyes.

"And back to the original problem with Kakashi-san being overdue, why don't you go to the mission desk and ask?" Ino demanded, sitting up suddenly. "Chōji and I will go with you, if it makes you feel better."

"Thanks." Sakura would feel better with her friends going with her actually. Ino stood and reached down, pulling Sakura up before they both turned and hauled Chōji to his feet.

Ino smirked at her and began heading towards the Hokage's tower, "No time like the present! Let's go!"

Sakura huffed out an amused breath and jogged to catch up, falling into step easily as Chōji took up the rear position.

The missions’ desk (the one used by chūnin and jōnin, not the public one set out for civilians and foreign shinobi to see) was located in a small room set off to the side on the main floor of Hokage Tower. It was perpetually manned by two chūnin (both with at least A rank clearance) and one jōnin (with S rank clearance or, according to rumor, even higher).

Ino headed straight for the jōnin. "Fu!" The man – no teenager, he didn’t even look like he was as old as Iruka-sensei  - looked up and Sakura knew that the two were related - only the Yamanaka had pupil-less light blue eyes like those, even if this teen’s blond hair shaded closer to brown or maybe red.

"Ino, you know that I can't tell you anything about what your sensei or Shikamaru-chan are doing," Ino's cousin sounded resigned and Sakura wondered how often Ino came in to ask - Asuma-san had been gone for nearly a month and Shikamaru had been gone for half that. “But…”

Ino flapped a hand impatiently, "I'm not here about me today."

Sakura quickly stepped forward, not wanting Ino to ask for her, "I was wondering if you'd heard any news about Kakashi Hatake? He's three days overdue."

Fu peered at her, eyes narrowed, "Only family or teammates are authorized to ask about missions so I can't answer any of your questions."

"I'm Kakashi-sensei's apprentice, so I should be authorized to request general information about his missions and their status." Sakura was on firmer ground here - after she'd passed the bell test, she'd made sure that she knew everything about what privileges were and weren't allowed teammates, just in case they were ever injured on a mission (not that she thought that Sasuke would ever be injured and she hadn't really cared about Naruto. She'd been so naive back then). She just hoped that that privilege extended apprentices and masters. It probably did.

Fu looked skeptical but he was pulling a file out of a stack, so Sakura didn't care.

"Hatake-san has never taken...." his voice trailed off and he stared at the paperwork for a moment before his gaze flicked up to her and back to the paper. “I apologize. In any case, he's overdue the initial estimate for arrival but before the date allotted for a late return. If he's not back by the middle of next week, come back and check in again." He turned back to Ino. "And, if you hadn't interrupted me earlier, Sarutobi-san returned this morning with Yūhi-san. Now go away."

Ino and Chōji took off almost immediately after, hoping to track down their sensei, and Sakura headed in the direction of her aunt's compound, since Momiji had wanted to see her - it had been nearly a week and she was eager to see what Momiji had created.

Momiji was home, out in the greenhouse trimming the leaves off of the indigo plants, and Sakura grabbed a pair of light gloves and began to help - she might not have spent much time with her father's family, but her earliest memories of her mother's family were from the greenhouses, where the family grew dyes from plants that weren't native to Fire Country; there were five greenhouses and dozens of terraces scattered throughout the grounds and in the lone cave that was also used as a storage area and evacuation route.

Momiji waited until they had filled a basket and were walking towards the cave - a part of it had been set aside for the cauldrons that were used to make the dyes - before speaking, "It's almost done," she wrinkled her nose, "probably. I had to dig up some of great-great-great grandfather's notes on how he wove his cloth to make sure I was doing it right and then drafted Riko into helping me get the weaving done."

Sakura blinked. "Riko weaves?" Her cousin hated weaving, though she loved making dyes and mixing colors together and making new ones.

Momiji laughed, "Only when I tell her she can use some of her new colors on the cloth! Nothing fancy or too bright," she hurriedly added, "But she's been working with some absolutely beautiful greens and browns and wanted a chance to try them out."

"I can't wait," Sakura assured her, "You didn't have to do this."

"You're family." Momiji shrugged. "And what you're doing keeps us safer and maybe will keep Kaede safe too, so giving you clothing isn't that much. And I wanted to practice some new techniques," she added and Sakura laughed.

After they dropped the flowers off with one of the apprentice girls they headed towards one of the branch houses, where Sakura's aunt had converted it into several work rooms that she and her apprentices used.

Sakura opened the door and stared. A hip length qipao, dyed to the same green as newly budded leaves with threads of brown intermixed that broke up the edges of the shirt, hung on a mannequin. Sakura moved towards it and gently touched fabric, which was thicker than she thought. She turned back to Momiji, who beamed at her, "It has seven layers of fabric, so it should stop most projectiles - we made some of the shirts out of cotton; those are meant to be worn for actual missions." She nodded at the one on the mannequin, “That one is for when you need to impress people.”

"It's...." Sakura fingered the fabric again, it was thicker than she was used to and she'd have to make sure it was flexible enough to move in. She swallowed and continued, "It's beautiful, thank you."

Her cousin went to a closet and pulled out a pile of shirts. She turned and held them out to Sakura - all of them had the Haruno clan symbol somewhere on them and she examined the qipao again, seeing the eternal circle – along with what looked like…seals? – stitched into the fabric with thread the same color of the cloth - and she took them.

"Those are practice shirts, so that you don't ruin something that you might want to meet foreigners in." Momiji grinned, "You need to impress them before you beat them."

Sakura opened her mouth but shut it when Momiji dumped several pairs of pants on top of the shirts.

"We're still working on pants - but these will do for practicing in - for you, so you aren't leaving are you? I might need to measure you again."

"No.... Kakashi-sensei is still on a mission, so I'm still in village."

"Good." Her cousin stepped back and looked her over critically, "You're a Tsukihana and a Haruno, so you need to look like it."

 _~_ ~ _~_ ~~ _~_ ~*

The next day Sakura took Motoichi and Kaede to Training Ground Four, near the west side of the village - a wave of chūnin and jōnin had returned to the village within the last day and most of the students staying with Iruka had returned to their homes for the next few days - and Sakura wanted to spend some time with her cousins before they graduated; Motoichi this August and Kaede next December with Konohamaru and Matsuri.

Motoichi was struggling with his henge and Sakura thought that she knew what going wrong, but wanted to see what he was doing without any distractions around. Kaede had wanted to watch as well, because her class was about to start learning the henge and she was hoping to get a leg up.

“I’m not getting it!” Motoichi flopped backwards onto the grass, still green, but edging towards the brown that meant that it was dying. Sakura squatted next to his head while Kaede leaned back against a tree, reading a book on the history of Wind Country silks. Motoichi scowled at her. “You were good at this!”

“I was excellent at this, but my chakra control was better.” Sakura told him. “That just takes more practice – are you tree walking, like we went over last week?” His reserves were about the same as hers had been but growing rapidly. Most her class had gone through massive leaps in chakra reserves during their last couple of months but it had also caused some problems with the E-rank jutsus they had been learning.

“Yeah, but it doesn’t feel like it’s working.” Motoichi sounded frustrated, though Sakura thought it was more self-directed frustration. She could understand that – how many times during the Academy had she spent hours working on the more physical aspects of training, only to feel like she could never master it enough? More times than she should have, probably.

She poked his head, “I asked Iruka-sensei and you’re in the middle of the ranks for taijutsu and the upper for the classwork. Your only problem is the ninjutsu and honestly? The only thing you need is some practice. Which you’re getting. Your jōnin-sensei is the one that teaches you how to be perfect at it. You just need to give them some building blocks to work with.”

“Oh.” Motoichi sounded thoughtful before he propped himself up on his elbows. “Kaede said you had an apprenticeship.”

Sakura narrowed her eyes at Kaede, who was apparently engrossed in her book, and wondered when her cousins had started talking to each other. As far as she knew, they weren’t talking to each other a month ago. “Yes. My jōnin-sensei agreed to take me on for a one on one mentorship.”

“You should braid your hair then.” Motoichi gave her head a considering look. “Well, maybe you should ask Aunt Mei for the braided necklace instead, until you grow it out.”

“I’m not sure if I _want_ to grow it out.” Sakura settled in more comfortably. “It’s easier when it’s short.”

“Only _babies_ have short hair.” Motoichi sounded so scornful that Sakura wanted to laugh.

Sakura snorted. “That’s a Uzushio thing, not a Konoha thing.” She tugged his own short hair. “I don’t want someone being able to grab my hair in a fight.”

He wrinkled his noise at her. “That makes sense I guess.” He sounded like the acknowledgement physically hurt and Sakura did laugh then.

“Come on,” She rose and moved off to the side, allowing Motoichi to spring to his feet. “Let’s try again.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 The late afternoon sun was hot and Sakura was just about call for a rest break - if only for a few hours, until the sun slid behind the trees - when the warning sirens started to wail. Motoichi looked in her direction as Kaede jerked in the direction of her home, only to pull back as training kicked in; Sakura was the ranking shinobi of the group, since she was a) actually graduated and b) had the seniority.

Sakura took a moment to listen to the pitches of siren, going quickly through the list they'd had to memorize during the last two weeks in the Academy (most citizens had the basic ones memorized by the time they were five, but the genin had to have all twenty alarm patterns memorized to graduate) and paled.

"We need to get to the nearest shelter, now." She grabbed Kaede's wrist, trusting Motoichi to follow her.

"Sakura-chan!" Kaede ran to keep up, her voice rising in panic. Motoichi was behind them, one of his kunai in his hand, even if Sakura knew he probably wouldn't see or sense anything until it was too late. "Sakura-chan, what's going on?"

"Prison break" she paused to listen for a second, "for the maximum security prisoners. All civilians and genin are to get to the reinforced shelters immediately."

"Do we have time?" Motoichi moved closer, but left enough space that Sakura could throw kunai if she had to. He continued, "How long before someone set off the alarm?"

"Doesn't matter." Sakura kept moving, "We move, now."

They needed to get somewhere less open - Training Ground Four was one of the closest ones to the prison; only Training Ground Six was closer. Sakura stopped and then took a deep breath. She needed to calm down and think. A glance behind her told her that her cousins were huddled together, watching her. They were worried, but they trusted that she knew what to do. So she needed to live up to that trust.

She released her chakra, letting it spread out in a dome around her - she couldn't afford the chakra she'd use making a complete sphere; she'd have to trust that if any prisoners were headed their direction, that they wouldn't being thinking clearly enough - or have the ability - to move under land instead of over it.

"Nothing." She resumed moving. "We're heading for Shelter Five. Kaede, if I need to stop, you follow Motoichi's lead. Stay in the shelter until one of the chūnin or jōnin come and get you."

"It's a drill, right?" Kaede's voice was small and she was pale. Motoichi was just as pale, but he didn't say anything, only stepping closer to Kaede, so that the younger girl was in the protected position in their formation.

Sakura squeezed her hand reassuringly. "We'll be fine, Kaede. Just make sure you listen to Motoichi if I tell you to."

"Isn't that sweet?"

They stopped and Sakura shoved Kaede further behind her, stomach curling as the woman suddenly appeared to her senses.

The woman didn't look very remarkable, barely taller than Sakura herself, her features seemingly fragile and delicate. But her chakra.... Sakura barely kept from shuddering, it was so abrasive and... she wanted to pull her own chakra back into her skin so she wouldn't have to feel it anymore.

"You don't look like genin." The woman's voice was dismissive as her gaze flicked over them. "Are you little civilians playing dress up?”

Sakura bit her lip but didn't answer - she wasn't going to play the escapee’s game, she needed to get around her and get her cousins somewhere safe. Behind her, Kaede's hand fisted the fabric of her shirt briefly before releasing it. Motoichi shifted slightly, but he waited for her lead.

"Motoichi, when I say, take Kaede and run." Sakura didn't take her eyes off the woman - maybe a jōnin, definitely a chūnin; genin just didn't get sent to the maximum security prison, they were considered too weak to survive there and had their chakra sealed before they were placed in the civilian prison.

"Got it."

Sakura raced through the water clone genjutsu, hoping that there was enough water around her to make it partially effective - it hadn't rained in weeks and most of the streams were almost nothing more than trickles but the humidity had been building for the last three days - and snapped, "Go!"

As her cousins raced off she hurled kunai and shuriken at the woman, her hands raced through the signs for the Hell Viewing Technique; the woman was just out of prison, so getting caught was probably in the back of her mind and if she'd been there for more than a few months, just being outside and in the sun would be throwing her senses off.

"You think that will stop me, little girl?" The woman melted into the air and Sakura bit back a curse - she had hoped that the woman's chakra reserves would have been more depleted, but she clearly had enough. "What are you? Genin? Pre-genin?" The woman's voice echoed around the clearing; a scare tactic. Maybe she didn't have that much chakra after all. "Maybe I shouldn't kill you."

Sakura launched herself into a back handspring as the woman re-materialized right in front of her, barely avoiding the woman's grabbing hand. She landed on her feet and smirked, shoving some more power into the genjutsu and letting it go. "Maybe you can't," she sneered, "What kind of chūnin hides from a genin?"

"Chūnin?" The woman shrieked and charged her, but however long she'd been imprisoned in Konoha had done her conditioning no favors - Sakura managed to dodge a hit, though it was closer than she would have liked. "Chūnin? I am Sachi Mihashi of the Mist, you ignorant brat!"

Sakura dodged another swipe at her and created two shadow clones, fading back as they both charged Mihashi. "Never heard of you, so you can't have been that good."

"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" 

Sakura yelped as Mihashi blasted her with air, sending her skidding back and knocking her down. She rolled out of the way of the wind’s path, coughing and blinking rapidly, trying to clear the dirt out of her eyes so she could see. She looked up just in time to see the kick heading towards her, but didn't have time to dodge it, so she rolled with it, gritting her teeth as she felt a rib start to give.

"Not that good, little girl?" Mihashi's voice was poisonously sweet as Sakura knelt, pressing a hand to her ribs. "I'm going to take your head off with your own kunai before I do the same thing to the other two brats."

"No," Sakura got to her feet, favoring her injured side maybe a bit more heavily than was necessary. She felt strangely calm. "No. You're. Not!" She formed the seals for the Paralysis jutsu grimaced as she felt her chakra start to drain; Mihashi was a lot stronger than Kiba or Shino.

She held the jutsu as long as possible and then released it, hurling every last weapon she had at Mihashi while the woman was still disorientated. She charged behind her barrage, forming two new shadow clones; one raced towards the village and help (she should have done that first thing) while the other collected some of the kunai scattered on the ground and began to reuse them.

Mihashi adjusted her stance and then froze, eyes darting around her, lingering on the shadows at the edge of the trees. Sakura nearly charged the woman, but switched trajectories at the last second and dove into the bushes. She was injured and against an opponent of unknown reserves and capabilities. She needed to retreat, at least until her shadow clone dispersed, which it would do once it delivered its message.

She made sure to leave a little bit of a trail behind her, leading away from Shelter Five (after creating another shadow clone... she could feel herself hitting her limits; the shadow clones, even if she only made two at a time, were massive drains on her chakra... to hide Motoichi and Kaede's tracks) and towards the center of the village. If she was lucky, Mihashi would cut her losses and flee. If not, well, at least she wouldn't be going after her cousins.

She ducked behind a willow, pressing herself against the rough bark and bracing herself to be sure she didn’t fall into the small stream that wound around the willow’s roots.

"Little girl...." Mihashi's voice wasn't sweet anymore. "I'm going to rip your tongue out, little girl, and feed it to you."

Sakura gripped her kunai, took a deep breath, and didn't move. Mihashi was trying to scare her, trying to get her to run. But she wasn't going to. She took another breath and released her chakra, spreading it out and trying to find that abrasive chakra...

"Water Style: Liquid Bullets!"

Sakura shrieked as the water slammed into her, knocking her forward and she cursed as she lost her grip on her kunai. She managed a replacement jutsu and got behind another bush, but she was definitely running out of steam and wasn't sure how much longer she could hide.

"Found you." Mihashi loomed over her and Sakura glared at her, but wasn't sure that she could do much else - she'd overreached herself, but her cousins were safe and hopefully someone knew that Mihashi was here.

Mihashi twirled the kunai that she must have grabbed off the ground (Sakura wanted to hit herself for providing the woman with a weapon, even accidentally) and plunged it down. Sakura flinched and raised her arms over her head, hopping that she could at least block the blow....which never landed.

Sakura cracked open one eye and then beamed up at Kakashi-sensei, who had grabbed Mihashi's wrist. Mihashi, for her part, was frozen in what looked like equal parts astonishment and terror.

"Sakura." Kakashi-sensei's voice was mild, "Why aren't you in a shelter?"

"I had to keep one of the shelters secure and allow civilians time to retreat there." Sakura kept her voice steady with effort - now that Kakashi-sensei was here, she was safe and the adrenaline that had helped keep her moving was going to wear off soon. But still - she was alive! And mostly uninjured! "I hadn't managed to reach a viable point for retreat when she found me."

Kakashi-sensei looked briefly at the heavens for a moment before he knocked Mihashi unconscious and let her crumple to the ground, moving to kneel in front of Sakura in the same instant. She blinked at him.

"Are you injured?"

The question was a good one and Sakura considered it for a moment before tilting her hand back and forth slightly. "At least one rib is cracked, I have several bruises from one of her water jutsus that might be deep tissue, but it’s been awhile since I had one of those so I'm not sure." She paused and took a breath. "I'm also nearly out of chakra, but about eight hours of sleep should take care of that." Another pause. "And food. Lots of food."

Kakashi-sensei stood and pulled her up with him before binding Mihashi's hands and throwing her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "Did the civilians make it to the shelter successfully?"

Sakura's head snapped up quickly and she almost turned in the direction of the shelter before she stopped herself; this wasn't the time to break protocol. "I'm not sure," she admitted, more worried now. How many criminals had broken out? If something happened to Motoichi or Kaede, her family would never forgive her; especially Motoichi, so soon after Jurobei.

Kakashi-sensei placed a hand on her shoulder, "The shelter is on the way into town, we can stop and check on them before we return her to authorities." He was calming her down, she knew, making sure that she wasn't going to do something stupid like run off (Sasuke) or panic loudly (Naruto) but she appreciated it. "Now, tell me exactly what happened here."

Sakura did, not sugar coating it or trying to hide anything (she didn't need to hide anything, she'd done everything exactly – alright, mostly – right) and Kakashi-sensei listened, stopping her occasionally to ask for clarification or to determine why she had done what she had done when she had done it.

(It was far more in depth than any other mission report, oral or otherwise, that she had been asked to give. She hoped she hadn't messed up.)

Motoichi and Kaede were waiting at the shelter and Sakura nearly knocked Motoichi over when she pushed the door open.

"Sakura!" Her cousins' voices overlapped and she laughed as they barely spared Kakashi-sensei a glance before they tripped over themselves to wrap her in a hug. (Motoichi was the same height as her, she thought absently)

"What happened?" Motoichi pulled back and seemed to see Kakashi-sensei for the first time. "Who's this?" He didn't wait for an answer before he asked the next question, having apparently just realized that there was an unconscious woman over Kakashi-sensei's shoulder, "You beat her? That's awesome!"

"Team effort." Kakashi-sensei said easily. "I'm Sakura-chan's teacher and you're... cousins?"

"Haruno Motoichi." Motoichi gave a slight bow and bit his lip, gaze darting between their group and the open door. "Is the alert over?"

"Tsukihana Kaede." Kaede automatically bowed before straightening and giving Kakashi a suspicious look that reminded Sakura of Momiji and her aunt. "You didn't tell us who you were jōnin-san."

"Hatake Kakashi."

Sakura blinked. She’d never heard Kakashi-sensei offer his name so easily before. Kaede’s brow furrowed, like she thought she remembered the name but wasn’t sure how. Sakura ignored that – she could talk to Kaede about it later.

"And you can walk back to the village proper with us, since I'm with you."

Sakura squinted at her teacher, suddenly suspicious. He was being unusually open and accommodating. Maybe it was a henge? She released a little chakra and let it brush up against her teacher's (he gave her a wry look and she knew he wasn't fooled at all) to make sure it was really him.

Imitating chakra was almost impossible for most lower level shinobi and extremely difficult for the majority of the higher level ones, so if it was someone imitating Kakashi-sensei, they were very powerful. Or Sakura didn't know her teacher' chakra signature as well as she thought she did. Which was always possible.

Kakashi-sensei just herded them out of the shelter and began walking back to the village at a pace that was slow for Sakura, which meant it had to be killing him, but perfect for Kaede. Kakashi-sensei took the rear, with Kaede in the front and Sakura right behind her, with Motoichi holding the middle position. Not the most defensive of formations, but it would work fine with the four of them.

The village was eerily quiet and Sakura couldn't help the feeling of unease that curled in her gut. It should never be this silent, not in the early evening, with the sun painting the wood a near blood red and the stalls and outdoor markets abandoned. She did shiver then.

"I don't like it." Kaede voiced what all - well, three of them at least - were thinking and Sakura softly shushed her as Motoichi hissed "shut up", though without any venom.

"Hatake-san!"

Sakura flinched, Kaede let out a breathless little shriek while Motoichi said something that his mother would beat him black and blue for if she heard it. Kakashi-sensei lifted one arm lazily as an older girl dropped down in front of them, followed by three massive dogs.

"Inuzuka-chan," Kakashi-sensei sounded relaxed, so Sakura relaxed too, "would you and your partners mind escorting Kaede-chan and Motoichi-kun home while Sakura and I drop her” he shrugged the shoulder with the unconscious women, “off with the appropriate authorities?"

"Not a problem Hatake-san." Inuzuka-chan's dogs expertly began to herd Sakura's cousins and it was the work of seconds until she and Kakashi-sensei are left alone on the street.

Kakashi-sensei immediately headed in the direction of Hokage Tower, his pace fast enough that Sakura had to almost jog to keep up. They moved in silence and paused three times when they ran into security teams that were sweeping the street, making sure that none of the escapees (some of which were apparently foreign shinobi) had doubled back to hide in the village.

By the time they made it to the Tower, Sakura had relaxed; most of the escapees had immediately fled out of the village proper and what few stragglers there were had apparently been picked up quickly. Kakashi-sensei hadn't relaxed at the news, if anything, he grew more wary, and Sakura began to feel uneasy again. Wasn't it a good thing that they weren't in the village?

Before she could voice the question, Kakashi-sensei dropped down in front of the entrance to the Tower, where Tsunade-sama and Morino were waiting. Sakura ducked behind Kakashi-sensei when Morino narrowed his eyes at her before he turned his attention to Mihashi.

"We thought she was one of the first ones to head for the border," he sounded unhappy as two chūnin took the unconscious woman, "but apparently not."

"She got distracted trying to kill some pre-genin and genin that were training."

Sakura shifted uneasily when everyone in earshot focused on her, but Kakashi-sensei was still talking, "Luckily, Sakura-chan was skilled enough in the basics to buy time until help arrived."

"I sent a clone to alert someone." Sakura added, not wanting anyone to think that she hadn't at least tried to what she had been supposed to. Morino looked even more disgruntled and swept his gaze over his subordinates and Sakura wondered what he was looking for? The person who had seen her clone?

"It's a good thing you're back, Hatake," Tsunade-sama's tone was grim, "At least a dozen of the maximum security prisoners escaped less than two hours ago, disabled Sarutobi and Yūhi before they took four of the chūnin guarding them hostage and vanished. We've recaptured a third of them - idiots wanted to attack the village - but we need trackers to hunt down the rest."

Sakura's stomach filled with ice. "Hagane-san and Kamizuki-san," she blurted out before she could stop herself, "they had prison rotation this week...." her voice trailed off when Tsunade-sama looked at her, eyes filled with a mix of impatience and compassion.

"Missing." Tsunade had gentled her voice for the word, but it hardened again as she turned back to Kakashi-sensei. "The Inuzuka, the ones left in the village anyway, are already out looking but one of the chūnin took off after Mizuki. Find them before the chūnin gets himself killed."

"Hokage-sama," Kakashi waited until he had her attention, "If you could give Sakura a bit of a boost before we go..."

Tsunade-sama looked startled for a bare second before she stalked over to Sakura and pressed a finger against her forehead. Sakura gasped as the Hokage's chakra flooded through her, healing cuts and replacing the chakra she had lost in the earlier fight, and she barely heard Tsunade warning Kakashi-sensei about the aftereffects and how long the boost would last.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama!" She bowed hastily and launched herself to the rooftops as her teacher took off, running towards the northern edge of the village. Kakashi-sensei waited until they'd passed over the walls (startling Jomei, Matsu and a girl that must have been Kaya) before he landed on the ground just at the true edge of the forest.

Sakura landed next to him and waited patiently (minimal fidgeting, but not the patient stillness that she knew that Neji and Kakashi-sensei himself could reach) for him to tell her what to do. Kakashi-sensei studied her and she straightened, almost instinctively, before he spoke.

"Do you know anything about tracking?"

She immediately shook her head. "Not beyond the academy basics." And after spending the last two weeks with Kiba and the months watching Kakashi-sensei, she had realized how _lacking_ the academy basics were.

"Starting from the bottom then," Kakashi-sensei sounded oddly cheerful at the prospect. "We'll start after this, but for now, follow my lead and don't go off on your own."

As if she were going to do that – she was exhausted, even with Tsunade-sama’s chakra boost and anyways, she was a genin and Mizuki-sen…Mizuki was a chūnin. A high level chūnin, maybe even tokubetsu jōnin level. She’d get flattened.

Kakashi-sensei's pace was hard, but Sakura managed to keep up, if only barely and she didn't understand what trail Kakashi-sensei was following. So she asked, keeping her voice as low as possible.

"I'm following the chūnin that went after him - your sensei, Iruka? - I know what he smells like." Kakashi-sensei paused and Sakura came to a stop as well, wobbling a bit as she balanced on a tree branch. "But the trail is muddled; too many of the other prisoners - they must be moving in a group - and the jōnin and chūnin chasing them."

He pressed a hand to the tree branch and Sakura watched as the summoning seals spiraled out from his hand, tendrils of smoke appearing, followed by the dogs - there were at least six, though she only recognized Pakkun.

They scattered immediately after Kakashi had explained who they were hunting for and she and Kakashi-sensei followed the path they had started out on. She waited until they were further into the woods before asking the question that had occurred to her in the village. “Kakashi-sensei, you didn’t seem happy that the escapees were heading for the border instead of staying in the village. Why?”

Kakashi-sensei didn’t slow down. “Normally, it wouldn’t matter if they escaped, since enough jōnin would be in village to recapture them and we can say that it was a deliberate move on our part, but – “

Sakura interrupted, “Why would anyone deliberately let prisoners escape…?” She frowned and answered herself, “To convince them that it couldn’t be done, so that they wouldn’t try it again?” Her tone tilted up, making it a question instead of a statement.

“Right.” Kakashi-sensei sounded bored now, “But because the jōnin and chūnin are spread thin, if any of them do make it back to their home villages, they can give valuable information and Konoha looks even weaker than we do now, since we can’t keep prisoners and criminals under control.”

 “Oh.” Sakura dropped back a little, still keeping Kakashi-sensei in sight but pacing herself a little. She wasn't sure how long the boost that Tsunade-sama would last and she was starting to feel the bruises she'd picked up from her first fight. "Kakashi-sensei, I'm not sure I'm going to be much help, when we find them."

Kakashi-sensei glanced over his shoulder and dropped back, so that the pace was a little closer to what she was moving at. "That's fine. You're here to learn, not get into fights with criminals. When we do catch up with them, I'm going to engage with Mizuki and whoever else might be with him and you're going to locate and provide support to Umino."

"Right."

Kakashi-sensei kept to a pace that she was more comfortable with but that was still faster than she would have been able to manage even a few weeks ago.

Sakura bit her lip but kept quiet – _why_ had Mizuki gone to prison in the first place? She guessed that it had something to do with how Naruto had actually graduated, since whenever anyone had asked he’d stammered something stupid about him being that awesome and then clammed up, but no one had known anything – not even Ino and thanks to her dad, she knew most of the good gossip. Whatever it was had to be bad. There wasn’t any reason he’d have been sent to the maximum security facility otherwise.

“Whatever it is, ask now, instead of letting it distract you.”

Sakura flinched slightly. She hadn’t thought Kakashi-sensei had noticed, but apparently he had. Still…. “Kakashi-sensei, what did Mizuki-sen… what did Mizuki do?”

There was a long pause. “Part of it is classified.”

Sakura bit her lip. Classified? What could he have possibly done? He had been an Academy teacher!

Kakashi-sensei stopped and Sakura almost ran into him. He grabbed the back of her shirt when she would have overbalanced and pulled her back next to him. “And part of it is he used one of your classmates,”

“Naruto.” It had to be. No one else would have – could have – been involved. And it fit with his suddenly being able to graduate, not to mention his almost impossibly quick mastery of a jutsu that had _caused him to fail_ only the day before.

“fine then, Naruto.” Kakashi-sensei’s tone was heading towards impatient, so Sakura shut up and let him talk, “to attempt to steal a scroll with classified and forbidden jutsus. Obviously he failed. But since he should never have even known about the scroll, let alone the location of it, he was kept alive,” Kakashi-sensei’s voice soured and Sakura guessed he hadn’t been happy with that decision, “so that he could be questioned.”

“Oh.” Sakura wasn’t sure what else could possibly have happened that would have been stamped classified and refrained from asking about the scroll – maybe one day. She frowned. “Why would Mizuki want to steal a scroll full of jutsu that he probably couldn’t even use?”

Kakashi-sensei tensed, getting ready to start moving again, clearly done with questions, and Sakura followed his example. But the question stayed on her mind. _Why steal a scroll you can’t use? And_ how _could_ Naruto _use it?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think!


	7. Chapter the Fifth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which there is tracking, some learning, and Mizuki almost spills the beans (again)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is a little late. But not as late as it could have been, and you get two chapters of this story, two chapters of [ Fire Burning in My Bones](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7647892/chapters/17411179), and however many Dreams of the Future I decide to put up. 
> 
> And thank you to [ elenathehun](http://archiveofourown.org/users/elenathehun/pseuds/elenathehun) for beta reading this.

Sakura was quiet until they came to a small house that had been built in the hills overlooking Konoha – outside of the main walls but still in the inner wards. Kakashi-sensei stopped at the edge of the tree line, crouching in one of the lower branches and she settled in further up, where the branches were thinner but could still hold her weight.

She didn’t know why they had stopped, the house didn’t look like anything special and they weren’t far enough from the village for it to be suspicious since the land immediately outside of Konoha, in the inner wards, was dotted with small farms and workshops owned by families that couldn’t afford to live in the walls or weren’t comfortable enough to live in the village with shinobi, like her youngest aunt.

She looked down at Kakashi-sensei, who was staring at the house and tentatively asked, “What are you looking for?”

Kakashi-sensei tilted his head back so that he could see her and for a moment she was afraid he wouldn’t answer, that she had used up his supply of patience with her questions about Mizuki, but he asked her a question instead, “Is there anyone in the house?”

Sakura bit her lip and focused, trying to sense whether there were any chakra signatures in the house. She sensed Kakashi-sensei below her but no one else and she wasn’t sure if that was because there was no one there or if she couldn’t sense that far. She didn’t know what her limits were – she hadn’t checked.

“I… I don’t know.” She admitted, feeling her stomach clench at the admission of failure, and waited for him to speak. He hummed thoughtfully and then jumped to the ground, landing and looking back up at her.

“Stay here until I call you.”

Sakura didn’t get a chance to answer before he was slipping out of the trees and making his way across the clearing. She stayed were she was, wishing she had had a chance to change out of the biker shorts and t-shirt she was wearing. Or had a chance to collect some of her weapons, because after the failure at sensing chakra, she doubted that he’d been impressed with her lack of weapons. She watched as Kakashi-sensei vanished into a window and settled in to wait, desperately searching for something to distract her.

_Why would a chūnin steal a scroll he couldn’t use?_

She turned the question over in her head, trying to list the different reasons.

_Because he wanted to steal it for someone else?_ Maybe. But who would want the scroll? She frowned as she turned the idea over. It would depend on what was on the scroll, she guessed. It was a Forbidden Scroll, but there were at least a dozen of those scattered throughout the village. Almost every clan of any size had at least one scroll containing something classified on it. But he had used Naruto to steal it, so it wasn’t a clan scroll.

A quick glance at the house told her that Kakashi wasn’t waiting impatiently so she went back to thinking. It had to be somewhere that Naruto was familiar with, otherwise why use him, especially if someone wanted to get away while pinning the blame on Naruto. So… Sakura pursed her lips as she tried to remember where Naruto frequented that might also have a Forbidden Scroll. She straightened abruptly.

_Hokage Tower_.

_Naruto had stolen a Forbidden Scroll from Hokage Tower._

Oh Kami. There were several scrolls in the tower but only one that was frequently gossiped about from Academy students on up. The Second’s scroll. Sakura clutched the tree as her knees weakened. How was her teammate not dead? Even if no one really knew what was on the scroll everyone knew that it was rumored to contain some of the most powerful jutsus ever created by the First and Second Hokages and the Lady Mito.

“Hey.”

Sakura jumped when a voice spoke in her ear and blinked at the dog that had appeared to come out of nowhere. It was small and tan, with a white snout and _how had it gotten up next to her_? The dead leaves on the ground should have at least warned her it was coming. She hadn’t thought she could feel any more inadequate then she had before, but she could.

“Boss wants you in the cottage.”  It didn’t wait for Sakura to respond, just hopped back to the ground and raced towards the dwelling. Sakura launched herself after it and ran to the front door. She skidded to a stop, unsure of whether it would be better to go in the front door or a window. On one hand, the door was probably trapped. Of course this was probably a shinobi’s house, so the odds were _everything_ was trapped.

“Sakura!”

Kakashi-sensei sounded impatient, so she went through the door, trusting that he wouldn’t have left anything deadly for her to run into. She froze when the floor chirped and stepped carefully forward, flinching when it chirped _again_. Kakashi-sensei wasn’t going to believe that she’d improved at all.

“It’s a Nightingale Floor.” Kakashi-sensei didn’t look up from where he was digging through a pile of rags, the dog laying on the floor watching him. “Don’t worry about stepping lightly right now. We’ll work on it later.”

Sakura blinked and stared at the floor. “I thought that was just something that paranoid noblemen did.” She’d certainly never heard of any of the minor nobles that lived in the village having one, but the gossip in the Academy (and her aunt’s romance novels) said that noblemen in the capital had them.

“It is.” Kakashi-sensei sounded distracted. “See if you can find her uniforms anywhere.”

Sakura hesitated and then headed for the dresser on the far side of the one-roomed cottage and started opening drawers. If Kakashi-sensei wanted her to look for whoever lived here’s clothes, he probably had a reason. The dresser only contained several sets of civilian clothes and socks, so she moved over to the two standing closets next to the dresser. She found them in the far closet, neatly hung up and ready to go, though one hanger was empty. “Kakashi-sensei, I found them!”

He brushed past her and rummaged through them before tossing a set at her. “These should fit. Put those on, they’ll be more protection.”

Sakura flushed in embarrassment even if that wasn’t her fault, not really, as she quickly pulled on the shirt and then stripped off the shirt she had been wearing and shorts while Kakashi-sensei kept his back to her. The pants went on quickly, but… “They’re too loose.” A belt hit her in the head and she threaded it through the belt loops and tightened it as far as it would go.

Kakashi-sensei turned around and looked her over before briskly cutting the sleeves shorter and efficiently wrapping bandages around the end, keeping them from flapping around. The ends of the pants she tucked into her boots. Still loose, but not going to trip her up, which was the important thing.

“And this.”

Sakura took the weapons pouch and immediately dug through it to see what was there. One of the first things that her father had told her after she had graduated was to always know what was in her weapons pouch, so that she didn’t grab a kunai when she wanted an explosive tag. Whoever this was seemed to favor ninja wire and shuriken, but she found a few kunai and some sealing tags that she didn’t recognize. She took those out of the pouch and placed them carefully on top of the dresser, not wanting to accidently set them off.

“Whose house is this?” She looked around curiously, now that she was sure that Kakashi-sensei probably wouldn’t mind – _he_ was looking through everything, after all.

The room was small, but clean, with an indoor fire pit for simple meals in the center. She glanced around but it didn’t look like there was any indoor restroom area and she wrinkled her nose at the idea of having to always dig a latrine hole. Nothing decorated the walls, giving the house an impersonal feel to it, and Sakura shifted slightly, uneasy now. The only sign that anyone lived her at all were the clothes and the cooking pot.

“A tokubetsu jōnin.” Kakashi-sensei headed out of the house, Sakura hurrying after him and the dog running ahead, disappearing into the trees. “She was involved with Mizuki before he went to prison. After that, she didn’t spend time in the village, unless she was assigned a mission.”

Sakura darted a quick look back at the house. Had the woman moved up here after, to get away from the gossip? Or had she always lived up here and just stopped socializing with people? She considered asking Kakashi-sensei, but discarded the idea after a few seconds thought. She’d already asked him enough questions today and she didn’t want him to think that she couldn’t focus on the mission. Even if she was curious.

They were back in the trees, moving north again, when Sakura spoke. “Did she help… did she help Mizuki?”

Kakashi-sensei ignored the question.

She hadn’t really expected an answer and if she was honest, she didn’t want one. She remembered telling Sasuke that she would abandon the village with him, that she _loved_ him enough to betray her friends for the man that had killed the Sandaime, had killed her _cousin_. Looking back at it, with a month between then and now, she was a little disgusted with her behavior. But if this jōnin had done the same thing… was it really so strange that she’d been that stupid?

It was nearly full dark by the time Kakashi-sensei stopped them for the night and Sakura nearly collapsed; Hokage-sama’s chakra boost had worn off and she was feeling all of the deeper bruises that the quick healing hadn’t had a chance to deal with. Kakashi-sensei looked fine, even if Sakura knew that he hadn’t had time to rest in between getting to the village from his mission, rescuing her the first time, and getting assigned this mission.

Several of the dogs slunk into the clearing while Kakashi-sensei was digging through his kit for some ration bars – Sakura thought they tasted disgusting, but they were right in between two growing seasons, so all of the plants were either already harvested or not ripe enough to eat – and spread out around them. The tan and white dog from earlier flopped down next to her on one side and a massive bulldog laid down on the other.

“Here.” Kakashi-sensei handed her two bars. “Eat both of them, they’ll get your energy back up. We’ll stay here for the night.”

“Which watch am I taking?” If they were chasing criminals, then they needed to take watches and Sakura was determined to take hers. She wasn’t going to let Kakashi-sensei think she wasn’t ready to do her share.

“None of them.” Kakashi-sensei’s tone was unreadable as he studied her. “Enough of the pack is here that they’ll take the watches.” He dropped a hand on her head and his voice softened slightly. “They found the missing chūnin – they’ll need to spend some time in the hospital, but they’ll all be fine.”

Sakura blinked. Kakashi-sensei never really touched her, not unless he thought that things could be fixed (the only other time he’d done this was right after Sasuke and Naruto had tried to _kill each other_ …. No, when _Sasuke_ had tried to killed _Naruto_. She wasn’t going to stick her head in the sand). So… so the head touch was his way of being reassuring?

By the time she blinked again, Kakashi-sensei was stepping back and speaking, his tone brisk. “Get some sleep. We’ll be leaving at false dawn.”

Sakura settled back against the big bulldog, who huffed but didn’t try and move her, and was asleep almost before Kakashi-sensei was finished speaking.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The next morning Sakura _ached_. She kept her mouth shut; she didn’t want Kakashi-sensei to think she was complaining but he noticed anyway since he handed her a ration bar and a small pill. “That’s a soldier pill. It’ll keep you going for twelve hours on a mission.”

Sakura examined the pill with interest, since this was the first time she’d ever heard of it, and swallowed it, grimacing at the disgusting taste. It took less than a minute for the head rush and she felt her stomach roil as the pill kicked in. “I don’t think I like these very much.”

“Good.”

The dogs spread out around them as they continued north. Kakashi-sensei kept up a steady pace and Sakura was using most of her concentration just to keep up. They’d moved into the Middle wards about an hour after they broke camp and Sakura felt the loss of the thick chakra in the air keenly. She hadn’t liked it on the mission to Wave and she didn’t like it now – it left her feeling exposed.

She frowned at the mountain that seemed to be rising out of the ground in the distance. She hadn’t realized that Fire Country had had anything that could be called a mountain and bounded forward until she could ask Kakashi-sensei about it.

“It used to be much larger, but a fight during the Warring Clan Era leveled the area.” Kakashi-sensei didn’t even sound out of breath. “Now it houses a research facility with some of the more deadly experiments, so it’s still within easy travel distance but far enough out it doesn’t pose a danger to the civilians.”

The trees ended, dwindling down to shrub brush before vanishing entirely as the forest narrowed into a narrow box canyon that looked completely devoid of life. She bit her lip and glanced at Kakashi-sensei – the entrance was making her uneasy and she didn’t know if she should say something. He huffed out a soft breath and motioned to his dogs, sending two of them - the massive bulldog and small tannish dog with spikey fur - forward, slinking close to the canyon walls until they were out of sight.

The tan and white one spoke, keeping its voice low. “Pakkun came through here boss. Him and that chūnin, about two hours ago.” It sniffed the air. “Three other brats came through not long after that.”

Kakashi-sensei nodded. “We’ll go slow then. Sakura, stay behind me.” He glanced at the tan and white dog standing next to Sakura and then back at the remaining four. “Guruko, you stay with her. Ūhei, go report to Hokage-sama. Shiba, Bisuke, and Akino - go back up Pakkun.”

The three dogs took off at a dead run, running into the trees on the right side of the entrance and vanishing. Sakura followed Kakashi-sensei into the canyon, Guruko right behind her. Her teacher wasn’t running anymore, moving at a slower pace that allowed Sakura (she didn’t think that it was intentional) to keep up.

She stopped for a second at the end of the canyon, taking in the destruction. The ground was…. She wasn’t sure there was a level spot _left_ , with boulders and smaller piles of stones turning the ground into a dangerous obstacle course that had plenty of spots for an ambush, while the canyon walls were a mess of gouges and craters that extended several dozen feet above her head.

Kakashi-sensei had already started moving forward, moving from one boulder to another without ever touching the ground, and Sakura scrambled after him, hauling herself onto the top of a boulder in order to follow.

 “Iruka-sensei did _this_?” She blurted in surprise. The damage looked much, much worse now that she was looking down on it, since she could see kunai and shuriken littering the ground, along with the black smears that indicated explosive tag use. She just… it was _Iruka-sensei_. He knew the best way to explain what chakra was, not how to turn a canyon into a war zone.

Kakashi-sensei glanced back at her, eye narrowed, and she snapped her mouth shut, flushing in embarrassment. Right, enemies might hear her.

“No. This was probably Tsubaki.” He sounded bored and slightly annoyed, as though this had been done to purposefully inconvenience him.

As Sakura followed Kakashi-sensei out of the canyon she glanced back – a tokubetsu jōnin did that? Could _she_ do that?

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

They found Iruka-sensei and Mizuki outside of an abandoned building with a small dark haired woman that Sakura didn’t recognize, but who must have been the Tsubaki that Kakashi-sensei had mentioned. Kakashi-sensei landed in the trees, Sakura and Guruko right next to him, and for a moment they all stared.

Mizuki looked like he had fur. And claws.

“Kakashi-sensei?” Sakura desperately hoped that her teacher had some sort of explanation to give her. She hadn’t thought that anyone could do that. Not even Kiba’s Fang over Fang did that to him.

“Stay here.”

That… was not as helpful as Sakura had hoped and she settled in to watch as Tsubaki dropped under one swiping claw to hamstring Mizuki, only barely avoiding disembowelment when he kicked at her. Iruka-sensei was keeping his distance, using kunai and shuriken in equal measure which only seemed to be irritating Mizuki, but provided Tsubaki with the distractions she needed to get close.

Tsubaki rolled backwards and stopped next to Iruka-sensei, hands flying through a set of seals before slamming her hands on the ground. For a few seconds, there was nothing but silence, and then the ground buckled, cresting like a wave and moving straight at Mizuki, who leapt into the air to avoid it. The former teacher landed and darted forward, clawing at Iruka-sensei as he grabbed Tsubaki’s braid and used it to hurl her through the air. Sakura winced, her hand flying to her own hair – that must have been painful.

But the tokubetsu jōnin ignored that as she twisted so that she rebounded off a tree truck and used the momentum to launch herself at her opponent. Another set of signs and the soil turned into quicksand, nearly sucking Mizuki under before he countered it with a wind jutsu that sent him straight up.

Iruka-sensei moved then, covering Tsubaki as she set up another jutsu and _where was Kakashi-sensei?_ Sakura clung to the tree as the ground lifted almost a foot before dropping back down, the impact jarring her and almost knocking her out of her perch. Guruko, still beside her, snarled.

“I should have killed you that night.” Mizuki sounded….half crazed with whatever was driving him. Iruka-sensei glared at him, hand pressed against his side where he must have been injured. “You and that demon.”

_Demon_? Sakura wondered what he was talking about.

“He’s not!” Iruka-sensei sounded livid and Sakura blinked. _Was he talking about Naruto?_ She knew that her teammate could cause trouble, but calling him a demon seemed a little excessive.

“Mizuki, please!” Tsubaki sounded like she was close to tears, but she didn’t slow down as she charged towards him again. “Stop this! _It’s not too late_!”

Sakura honestly doubted that, given the fact that she and Kakashi-sensei had been chasing him since yesterday, but if it got him to stand down that would be fine. Mizuki ignored the plea, batting her aside as he charged towards Iruka-sensei, who vanished in a puff of smoke when Mizuki ripped into him with his claws, leaving a log behind. A substitution.

Guruko pressed against her upper thigh as he watched the fight. “He’s slowing down. Whatever he did to himself is wearing off.” The ninken sounded relieved and Sakura couldn’t blame him – Mizuki in this state was _terrifying_ , between the face distorted by the excess teeth and the muscles so oversized they were grotesque.

And Mizuki did seem to be slowing down – he was breathing harder and more of Tsubaki and Iruka-sensei’s hits were landing. She glanced around the edges of the clearing, looking for Kakashi-sensei. He was here, why wasn’t he stepping in?

The ground rolled again and this time the tree came down. Sakura leapt clear, Guruko landing lightly beside her. They were still in the bushes and Sakura stayed very still – she didn’t want to get in the middle of this fight. She wouldn’t do more than get in the way and that was the last thing she wanted.

“Is… is he smoking?” And it looked like there was steam rising from Mizuki, just a little a first, and then more and more, until his body was nearly obscured. Sakura covered her mouth with her hands, holding in what would have been either a scream or a gasp – she wasn’t sure which – at the sight of the emaciated body lying on the ground.

Iruka-sensei and Tsubaki moved cautiously towards the still form and Kakashi-sensei finally appeared, coming out of the old abandoned building they’d been fighting in front of.

“Hatake-san?” Iruka-sensei seemed surprised, at least until he looked down at Pakkun, sitting at his feet. “It’s a good thing that you’re here.”

Kakashi-sensei grunted as he crouched next to Mizuki. “Did he mention how he did this to himself?” He raised his voice, “Sakura-chan!”

She scrambled to her feet and came out of the bushes, stopping next to him. “Kakashi-sensei?”

“Look around the building, see if there was anything Mizuki left in there.”

That didn’t seem likely, but Iruka-sensei looked relieved and Kakashi-sensei didn’t look like he would appreciate any arguing, so she headed into the building, Guruko following, to see if Mizuki had left any information inside that Kakashi-sensei hadn’t found while he’d been in there.

The building looked long abandoned and Sakura carefully made her way forward, stepping around small piles of rubble that littered the first floor. The door opened to a large, cavernous space that disappeared into the shadows and Sakura stopped for a minute, fumbling with her borrowed weapons pouch until she produced a glow stick that she cracked open.

The greenish glow illuminated the area around her and she realized that the first floor also doubled as the viewing balcony of a sparring arena. She cautiously moved to the edge, not trusting the rusted metal floor to take her weight, and peered over. The light caught on a piece of metal and she wavered for a moment , glancing back at the entrance before she reluctantly began looking for a way down.

She’d barely made it to the main floor of the arena when raised voices caught her attention and she glanced back, tilting her head so that she could hear the faint sounds a little better.

That was definitely Iruka-sensei yelling and she guessed that the higher pitched voice was Tsubaki. She concentrated for a moment and could pick out Kakashi-sensei’s lower, sharp tones. She took a breath and kept looking – whatever they were yelling about was something that they didn’t want her around for, which meant that it probably had something to do with the crime that had landed him in prison in the first place.

“Up here kid!”

Sakura bounded up onto the viewing walkway that appeared to run the entire length of the arena and followed Guruko towards the back of the building. The dog slipped through a partially open doorway and Sakura followed, dropping the glow stick at the door so Kakashi-sensei knew where she was. She didn’t need it in the room anyway – there were torches stuck into the walls as regular intervals and Sakura squinted as the smoke they gave off began to irritate her eyes.

There wasn’t much in the room, just a desk pushed up against the far wall and a table in the center of the room. As she moved closer, Sakura noted that the table was deep enough that it was carved with various canals in it – and all of them were glistening in the torch light, still covered in liquid.

She walked around it, memorizing the layout – she wanted to be able to recreate it if she was asked. She examined the liquids in it but didn’t touch; if this was what had turned Mizuki, she wanted nothing to do with it. Guruko refused to go anywhere near the table and instead sniffed around for hidden compartments or traps.

“Sakura.” Kakashi-sensei walked into the room, followed by a few shinobi that Sakura thought might be Naras. They looked like they might be related to Shikamaru, at any rate. “Hokage-sama is here, so we’re going back to the village.”

 “To the hospital.” Tsunade entered the room last, her nose wrinkling at the sight of the table. “You’re taking her to the hospital.” Lower so that Sakura could barely hear her, “Soldier pills? What were you thinking?”

Kakashi-sensei placed a hand on her shoulder and steered her towards the door. “Of course. We’re going directly to the hospital.”

Iruka-sensei and Tsubaki were still outside, talking in low voices but they stopped when she and Kakashi-sensei appeared. Iruka-sensei nodded to Kakashi-sensei. “Thank you for lending me Pakkun, he was very helpful in tracking Mizuki.”

“It wasn’t any trouble.”

Sakura glanced between Iruka-sensei and her teacher, confused. Kakashi-sensei only used that tone of voice when he was really irritated with someone, but she wasn’t sure what Iruka-sensei could have done. Tsubaki had faded back and Sakura took a step forward, wanting to ask her about the jutsu that she had seen Tsubaki use, but Kakashi-sensei tightened his grip on her shoulder.

“Sakura-chan needs to get to the hospital, so we can talk later.”

“But – ” She barely got the protest out before Kakashi-sensei had scooped her up in a bridal carry and was in the trees, heading for home. “Kakashi-sensei! I wanted to know about those jutsus!”

“ _I_ know those jutsus.” Kakashi-sensei’s tone was curt and she shrank back a little. She didn’t want to argue with him, but…

“Do you know the one that made the tidal wave of earth?” That one had been the most interesting and destructive. If Kakashi-sensei didn’t know it, she’d ask Tsubaki… after Kakashi-sensei had calmed down. She took in the tense set of his shoulders and decided she’d wait for a few weeks. Maybe months.

“I know it.” Kakashi-sensei seemed to relax the further away from the building – and the people in it – they got. “After I check your progress we can start to learn it.” He huffed as they went over the wall (Sakura thought she saw a couple of jōnin throw their hands in the air but no one chased them), “We’ll check your elemental affinity after you're discharged.”

Sakura blinked. “We’re actually going to the hospital?” Kakashi-sensei _hated_ the hospital.

“ _You’re_ going to the hospital.” Kakashi-sensei’s voice brooked no argument and Sakura didn’t have time to come up with anything to say before he was carrying her into the emergency room and passing her off to a medic before vanishing. And the flurry of medics that descended meant that she hadn't been given a chance to escape.

(Not that she would have gotten far, since she had mentioned she'd been given both a chakra boost from the Hokage  _and_ a soldier pill. After that, the medics had been adament that she sit down and  _not move_ until she was looked at by one of the jonin medics)

She sighed and dropped back onto her bed – they were keeping her overnight for observation – staring at the ceiling. “So… did I do good?”

The ceiling didn't reply and Sakura let herself sleep. She'd find out in the morning, one way or another.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment and let me know what you think!


	8. Interlude the Second

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Kakashi is annoyed by another letter

Kakashi spent the rest of the day at the memorial stone, staring silently as his gaze moved from Obito (too stubborn, too slow, not good enough) to Rin (too weak, too arrogant, not fast enough) to Minato-sensei and Kushina (not there, trapped, not able to help). He'd almost lost her, almost failed again, almost failed the last student he had left.

Because of Orochimaru. Because of a greedy chūnin that didn't realize how good he had it and the woman that hadn't had the spine to stand up to him when it counted.

(He might have been more forgiving, might have cared how much Mizuki had her confidence and self-worth torn to shreds, if he hadn't almost had to execute Naruto's second precious person because they were careless)

But she was fine. He told himself. She had survived, had done far, far better than he had ever imagined she'd do just two weeks ago when he'd left her instructions. And she'd grown up - she'd never complained, hadn't whined while they were tracking and he knew she had to have been exhausted and sore.

He rose from his crouch, glancing at the sky before heading back into town - it was dusk and he needed to stock his fridge if he wanted food for the next few days; because after over two weeks of not being able to trust the food he was eating, he wanted something safe. Uncomplicated.

He wove through the crowds, slipping past the civilians without stopping and evading the shinobi as much as possible. A glimpse of green had him taking a fifteen minute detour through Naruto's old neighborhood and he wondered what the boy had done with his belongings before he'd left. Should he have offered to hold on to Naruto's things?

But he finally made to the store in the Uzushio district he frequented only because walking in smelled like stepping into Minato-sensei and Kushina's house, in the few years they'd had in between Rin's death and Naruto's birth.

(Uzushio food had been famed for the mix of spicy and sweet that was unique to the islands, though some of the cooking and recipes had survived in the Land of Waves. The Bridge Mission had been the closest that Kakashi had come in years to having food that reminded him of home)

He quickly bought his groceries and then, on a whim, he grabbed three jars of spices randomly, stuffing them into his bag before he could change his mind and put them back.

(He had been terrible at cooking, the few times that Kushina had roped him into helping. She'd laughed, then, and done some sort of magic that had managed to salvage more meals than he could count. Minato-sensei had never been allowed to set foot in kitchen)

The old woman manning the register gave him the same narrow eyed look she gave him every time he walked in but she took his money, just like she did every time. He didn't know why she did that and hadn't worked up the courage to confront her about it.

(Her storm grey eyes were too close to Kushina's for comfort)

He had nearly settled into an even keel (a phrase that Kushina had favored, had explained that it meant steady. Tsunami had used it too, while he was recovering in her house) when he saw the envelope on his table.

 _Again_.

He was getting incredibly annoyed with people breaking into his house to leave him annoying pieces of paper.

He quickly put his groceries away, setting the spices carefully on the counter before going to deal with the letter. He examined it carefully, even using his Sharingan for a brief second. When the examination was finished, he finally picked it up without letting his skin touch it and opened it carefully.

 

_Hatake Kakashi,_

_It has come to our attention that you have failed to spend the required hours necessary personally tutoring your lower ranked teammate, as per regulations. Immediate action is necessary within the next five days or your team will be dissolved and your lower ranked teammate reassigned to a more invested jōnin._

_Please reply to address the concerns and conduct mentioned here_.

 

He crumbled the letter in his fist, forcing himself to breathe deeply until he was calm again. The letter had been dated four days ago. He had been three days overdue and spent another day in the woods chasing that sorry excuse for a chūnin. The chūnin he couldn't blame on the council (probably). The three day delay, however, had been due to a missive ordering him to avert to assist a chūnin/jōnin team dealing with a landslide. That. That he would blame on the council.

Another breath and he placed the letter carefully on the table and smoothed it out. He didn't know why the council didn't want him to train Sakura.

But he was going to find out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading and let me know what you think!


	9. Chapter the Sixth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Sakura checks up on her cousins and learns about the next mission

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and thank you to [elenathehun](http://archiveofourown.org/users/elenathehun/pseuds/elenathehun) for beta reading this chapter.

Sakura was discharged the next morning after a medic had looked her over, grumbling about giving a still developing body soldier pills. Sakura waited patiently (she’d ask about soldier pills when the medic _wasn’t_ clearly upset about it) and was discharged immediately after the examination with orders to “rest, with no strenuous activity – _including_ training” for the next three days.

The air when she stepped outside was damp and the clouds were hanging low, ominously grey with rain, and Sakura estimated she had maybe an hour before the anticipated precipitation hit – if it was anything like the usual summer rains, it would be hard and fast, leaving an oppressive humidity in its wake, and she’d prefer to be done with whatever running she decided to do before that.

No one was waiting for her, which she wasn’t surprised by, and she hesitated. Did she want to go to Iruka-sensei’s? It would be nice to see any of the students that were there, but she’d be expected to be responsible if Iruka-sensei wasn’t there. She bit her lip as she thought – did she want to do that? And it might be awkward, after what had happened.

But staying at her own home didn’t appeal to her and staying with either of her extended families would be just as tiring (if for entirely different reasons) and she turned towards Iruka-sensei’s house. If nothing else, she could ask him about what had happened.

(And see if he could find out if Tsubaki-san would be willing to show her jutsus. Kakashi-sensei had told her he would show her the jutsus…. but it was Kakashi-sensei and he’d never shown consistent interest in her before. Better to have a fallback plan)

She had barely taken more than a few steps when someone tackled her and latched onto her arm like a limpet.

“Sakura!” Ino seemed to be in an energetic mood and Sakura felt her mouth twitch into an answering grin as her friend continued. “What happened up there? No one would tell us anything when we showed up to help!”

“Nothing really.” Sakura shrugged. “Iruka-sensei and Tsubaki-san did most of the work.” She didn’t think that what had happened was classified, but she didn’t want to say anything until Kakashi-sensei told her it was alright. “When did you guys show up?”

Ino pouted but answered, “Just after you and Hatake-sensei took off. We had to turn the Stupid Brothers,” she wrinkled her nose, “over to the guards.”

“The Stupid Brothers?” Sakura blinked. “Who are they?”

“Some chūnin or tokubetsu jōnin from the war,” Ino huffed, “I asked dad about them and _he_ said they should never have been graduated from the Academy at all, but apparently they were really desperate for kunai fodder.” She sounded upset. “But all they wanted was to eat and I guess they attacked their squad for food or something and no one wanted to execute them, so they put them in the prison since their clan didn’t want to take care of them.”

Sakura frowned at her, “They’re from a clan? Are they allowed to do that?” She thought that clans were required to take in and care for ill members.

Ino looked uncomfortable. “They’re bastards - civilian mother and the clan didn’t want the burden from two shinobi that couldn’t contribute and weren’t legitimate members.” She shrugged lightly, “I think that it was irresponsible - what if they were paroled and had children? - but if they couldn’t contribute to the clan…”

Sakura tried to wrap her mind around the idea of not helping family - she had two cousins that weren’t legitimate, that her uncle had had before his marriage to her aunt, but they lived in the house and their schooling was provided for - and couldn’t. So she didn’t say anything, not wanting to get into an argument with her friend. Everything was still so fragile between them.

“You and Chōji stopped them?” Sakura was impressed - neither of her friends would have been able to do _that_ before the exams.

Ino shook her head. “No, Shikamaru got back from his mission and Hokage-sama sent us after them. It was supposed to just be Delay and Containment, but they were hungry.” She shuddered. “If Hokage-sama hadn’t shown up when she did, we’d have been in real trouble.” A pause. “Oh, and there was a little dog. Shikamaru said he knew it and it had back up, so that was helpful too.”

That must have been where Pakkun and the others had disappeared to yesterday, at the canyon.

Sakura grabbed at Ino. “Shikamaru’s back? Did he say anything about Naruto?”

“No.” Ino snorted. “As if he’d bother. He’s going to be up in the mountains for at least another two days, helping the researchers inventory everything that was destroyed or stolen by Mizuki, but when he gets back I’ll let you know.”

Oh. Sakura was confused for a moment before she realized that Mizuki must have gotten all those chemicals he used from somewhere… and Kakashi-sensei had mentioned a research lab out there.

“Thanks.” She wouldn’t be able to do anything, but she’d at least know how Naruto was doing. She pulled herself away from Ino gently. “I need to go to my Uncle’s, but do you want to spar or get lunch or something in the next couple of days? I can come by the shop after I talk to Kakashi-sensei and figure out what my schedule is going to be.”

Ino nodded as she turned to go. "Alright. I need to check with Asuma-sensei anyway, now that Shikamaru is back."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*                                                                     

Sakura opened her front door and stepped into her house for the first time in nearly a month, skirting around the pile of mail while she slipped off her shoes (and she needed to do something about _that_ before her parents returned) and heading for her room, since if she was planning on staying with Iruka-sensei for the foreseeable future she was going to need at least a few changes of clothes.

It didn’t take long to pack and she took a few minutes to try and get the worst of the dust before giving up and deciding to post a D-rank at the missions desk (she’d had to clean other people’s houses enough times, she knew that they took them) for someone else to take care of but she did scoop the mail off the floor and sorted it neatly into piles before she stuffed hers into her bag and headed for the door.

She made it to Iruka-sensei’s house just as the first drops of rain started falling and ducked inside, hurriedly shutting the door as the sky opened up and the sound of rain against the roof became deafening. She slipped off her shoes and dropped her bag in the guest bedroom, taking long enough to shower before darting out of the house during a break in the rain and racing towards the library, dodging puddles as much as possible. She hadn’t _heard_ any thunder, but the last thing she wanted to do was risk running over the roofs and getting fried, since she hadn’t ever bothered to verify the rumor that shinobi could attract lightning.

Librarian-san was there, tucked into her back room, and she looked up as Sakura walked in, her stern face transforming into something far kinder with a relieved grin. “Well, you’re not dead at least.” Sakura held still as the older woman gave her a careful once over, her brown eyes taking in everything. “With the way that some of the chūnin were carrying on, I wondered.”

“The jutsus you and Uzumaki-san taught me saved me.” Sakura didn’t want to think about what would have happened if she _hadn’t_ known those jutsus and so moved on before she could. “Thank you.”

Librarian-san’s face softened and her expression shifted towards pleased. “I’m glad. You should stop by the house – Kotaro will want to see you too.” She paused for a moment. “Since you survived your mission, I suppose that I can take the time to teach you another jutsu.”

Sakura blinked and felt her face split into a grin. “One mission means one new jutsu?” She forced herself not to bounce in place – new jutsus, ones that were _useful_ and could help her and someone willing to teach just when she _asked_.

Librarian-san’s eyes narrowed. “One B-rank or higher mission.” Her tone was stern. “I’m not teaching a new jutsu for every dog you walk or cat you catch.”

Sakura almost argued – she was a _genin_ and genin never got B-ranks – but stopped and considered. Now that she thought about it, most of her missions, after they’d started on proper ones, had always wound up getting upgraded. She didn’t think any of her missions had ever stayed C-ranks.

“Deal.” She said, sticking her hand out.

Librarian-san shook it gravely and then winked. “Now go enjoy the day while you can.” Sakura nodded and darted into the library proper and Librarian-san raised her voice. “And go tell that boy of mine you’re in one piece!”

The clouds had moved on and left sticky heat in their wake. Sakura made a face as she started sweating almost immediately and considered going back to the library for the rest of the day – at least inside the mountain it was cool – but she did have things she wanted to do, so she turned and headed in the direction of the civilian districts.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Aunt Hana was in the gazebo again when Sakura walked into the gardens.

“Sit down while I sew this.” Her aunt’s bright green eyes swept over Sakura, taking everything in. “Kaede told me what happened.” Her fingers stilled for a brief second before resuming their work. “Thank you. I… thank you.”

Sakura shifted uncomfortably. She hadn’t done anything other than what she’d been trained to do and she couldn’t have left Kaede and Motoichi _anyway_.

Aunt Hana took one last, deep breath before she continued, “Kaede is fine – she’s in school today with an exciting story to tell and not a scratch to show for it.”

She caught Sakura’s gaze. “I’m grateful and your parents will be very proud of you when they hear about this.”

Sakura ducked her head and stared at her feet. “It wasn’t a big deal.” And it hadn’t been. What else had she been supposed to do?

Aunt Hana clucked her tongue but moved on. “Well, since you’re here, Momiji has something to show you.” She gave Sakura a smile as Sakura rose. “Come back on your way out to say goodbye.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“Momiji?” Sakura knocked on the door to her cousin’s room and stepped in, taking in the rumpled covers on the bed and the books and swatches of cloth stacked everywhere. She took a step in and fingered a bit of cloth whose cloth shifted from a deep orange to a nearly sun yellow. The fabric was soft and Sakura didn’t touch it for long – whether her cousin was using it for a project or not, she didn’t want to ruin it by catching the fabric on her fingers.

“In here!” Momiji stuck her head out from behind a screen, her mouth stuffed full of pins, and Sakura’s fingers twitched. That was a good way to be seriously injured and _why would you place a weapon like that?_ Only Genma did that, and his senbon were all dull at one end and he only did one at a time, like a sane person.

Sakura walked around the edge of the screen and stared at the piles of fabric – the shirts were copies of the one Momiji had shown her last week and the pants were a brown that Sakura recognized as being similar to the bark on the Hashirama trees. Between the shirt and the pants, Sakura would blend in in most forest environments and some grassland ones, depending on the time of year.

“Are… are these for me?” She carefully picked one up and ran her fingers of the fabric. They were sturdy cotton it looked like and woven thicker than normal, similar to the one that Momiji had shown her last week. When her cousin had said that she wanted to give Sakura new clothes, she had been expecting the nice outfit – beautiful and impractical – but not that Momiji or Riko would decide to give her an entire wardrobe.

“Of course they are,” Momiji sounded cheerful. “Who else would I be making them for?” She turned back to one of the shirts she was still working on and Sakura watched her carefully began to sew a pattern on the shirt in thread the same shade as the shirt.

She watched it for a moment. “Are… are those seals?” She had seen the exploding tags before and they’d practiced making sealing scrolls in class, but she’d never heard of being able to use cloth and thread to hold seals.

Momiji blinked up at her before her gaze dropped back to the shirt. “How else would we be able to make the fabric strong enough to stop kunai?” She seemed to take Sakura’s stunned silence as worry about her knowledge because she rushed to add, “It was in one of grandfather’s books – I’m working off one of his patterns.”

Sakura shook off her shock and turned to her cousin. “Could… could I see the book? I don’t want to take it, I’ve just never heard using thread to make seals.” Although… she could see why it might not have been mentioned – there really wasn’t time to whip out a needle and thread in the middle of a fight and the Academy had always emphasized ninjutsu over everything else.

Momiji hesitated before nodding. “Of course, you’re family.”  She stood up and absently twisted her long blonde hair up into a bun and jamming a crochet needle in the mess to hold it in place. Sakura’s fingers twitched, but this time with a desire to replace it with something more useful – like a hair stick with an actual point.

The book was old and Sakura handled carefully, flipping through the pages and feeling awed. Whoever had originally written the book (and it wasn’t her grandfather, though his notes were near the back) had been a genius, even she could see that and she didn’t know anything about seals. Uzumaki-san would probably have murdered someone to get his hands on this book. Or maybe the Yondiame; he had apparently been a seal master.

Momiji hovered behind her nervously. “You’re not going to take it now, are you?” She kept her voice low, as though a jōnin were going to swoop in and snatch the book up. “I know that it’s technically shinobi business but we don’t use it for shinobis.”

Sakura handed her the book. “I should but…” she hesitated, “You use it on the wedding kimonos don’t you?” It made sense – with all of the designs that were already on there, no one was going to notice a few extra, especially if they were on the inside of the kimono or stitched into the seams.

Momiji nodded. “Seals for calming and designs to help make the bride more fertile and the groom more…” she blushed and flapped a hand. “You know.”

Sakura could feel her own face turning red. “Right.” She almost shoved the book at her cousin. “You can keep it.”

Momiji tucked the book away and gave her a slightly conspiratorial grin before gesturing back towards her room. “One last measuring and then I’ll be done.”

Sakura groaned and pushed herself to her feet. “Fine.” She narrowed her eyes at her cousin. “You just like sticking me with needles.”

Momiji snickered as she followed, scooping up her sewing kit. “I’m not answering that.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The sun was starting to set when Sakura made it to Uzumaki-san’s house – Momiji had been thorough and then her aunt had asked her to stay for some tea and it had spiraled from there, until it was late afternoon and Sakura still had things to do.

She slipped through the gate and knocked firmly on the door – Librarian-san had said he’d want to know she was in one piece – and steps back to wait. She heard the muffled clattering of someone moving around and took another step back as Uzumaki-san opened the door and peered at her, green eyes narrowing.

“It’s a little late for a lesson.” He said and Sakura flushed – she should have sent a note, since she’d been showing up nearly every other day.

“Sorry,” she wavered for a moment before continuing. “I wanted to say thank you – the jutsus that you taught me helped a lot.”

Uzumaki-san’s face reddened until it was nearly the shade of his hair and he sounded less gruff when he answered. “It wasn’t any problem.” He cleared his throat and continued. “Your jōnin-sensei back in town yet?”

Sakura nodded. “He is, but if you don’t mind, could we still meet to talk about the books?” She kept as polite as she could – she wanted to be able to come back, since she was sure that book discussions weren’t Kakashi-sensei’s preferred method of teaching. “And go over some other genjutsus?”

Uzumaki-san looked surprised but pleased and he agreed to keep meeting with her, since “you aren’t half bad for a genin”.

Sakura was pretty sure that was a compliment.

*~*~*~*~*~*

She took the roof road on the way back to Iruka-sensei’s this time, since there weren’t any clouds in the sky, and made much better time, dropping into the backyard just before sundown. She slipped into the house and frowned, slipping her hand into her kunai pouch – Iruka-sensei should still be at school, so who was in the kitchen?

She slid down the hallway, keeping close to the walls, and froze when a man’s voice filtered out of the kitchen. “If you stab me, I’m not finishing dinner _and_ you’re going to take me to the hospital.”

“Genma-san!” Sakura dropped the kunai back in her pouch and darted into the kitchen, only pausing for a second when she saw the more unfamiliar man sitting at the kitchen table while Genma cooked, coming to a stop next to him. “I thought you were going to be out of town longer!”

Genma gave her a grin. “Nope. We got called back yesterday, so there’s another mission we’re probably going to have to do, but we have a few days.” He gave the man at the table a mock glare – Sakura thought she ought to know who he was, but Genma hadn’t ever brought his mission partners back to Iruka-sensei’s house before. “I’m pretty sure it has something to do with Namiashi, but I can’t prove anything.”

The man – Namiashi – snorted and leaned back, stretching out his legs, and Sakura’s eyes widened when she realized how _tall_ he was. “I’m thinking it’s not.” He gave Sakura a slight grin before continuing. “I’m just the guy that hits people – you’re the one with _specialties_.”

Sakura blinked and narrowed her eyes. This was the first time she’d ever heard _that_ about Genma. Genma noticed and looked down at her. “Poisons, Sakura-chan, you know that.”

“Oh.” Poisons weren’t a specialty, they were just Genma, and Sakura subsided with a slight huff. “That’s normal.”

Behind her, Namiashi choked.

Dinner was quick, even with a few kids showing up – apparently a lot of jōnin and tokubetsu jōnin were getting pulled back into the village to get new assignments – and Genma and Namiashi disappeared almost immediately after, leaving Sakura to entertain herself with one of her books.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The next morning she was out the door when the sun rose – she hadn’t checked on Motoichi yesterday and she did need to find Kakashi-sensei – and headed towards the Uzushio district, hoping to catch her cousin before he left for the Academy.

She made it to the main entrance of the house as Motoichi and several other cousins were leaving - she hesitated; the others were all in the first two years of the Academy and she didn’t know most of them except by name. Motoichi saw her and peeled away, coming to a stop in front of her and giving her a once over as Sakura did the same for him.

“You didn’t come by over the weekend.” Motoichi fiddled with a strap on his bag. “Dad was worried.”

Sakura’s lips twitched into a half smile, since she doubted that Uncle Hoshi was the only one worried. “I’ll go see him. Are you ok?”

“I’m good.” His eyes lit up. “Inuzuka-san was really cool and her ninken are amazing!” He bounced a little. “She works with animal partners and it’s sort of like a medic!”

Sakura nudged his arm, glad that he didn’t seem too shaken by what had happened, but apparently the healing power of terrifying and friendly ninken overrode the stress of being attacked by a foreign shinobi. “You could see if you could do that when you graduate – there can’t be that many shinobi that specialize in ninken care.”

At least not shinobi that weren’t Inuzuka.

“Really?” Motoichi bit his lip. “I guess I’d have to work on my ninjutsu though.”

“Probably.” Sakura nudged him again, this time towards the hovering group of younger cousins. “I’m glad you’re ok.”

“You too.” Motoichi bumped her elbow and headed back, herding the cousins in the direction of the village proper. One of the youngest cousins – a little boy with light purple hair, a contrast to the sea of various shades of pink around him – waved at her and she waved back before heading in the direction of Uncle Hoshi’s woodshop.

Uncle Hoshi was carefully sanding a slat for a crib while several other pieces were set to the side as their varnish dried. Sakura studied them – a darker wood, with designs in a lighter wood inlayed into them – and frowned, studying the designs closely, the shape and positioning seeming familiar, but she couldn’t recall from where.

Her uncle looked up when he was done and gave her a welcoming smile. “It’s good to see you in one piece.” The smile shifted towards wry. “Motoichi was somewhat unclear on what condition you were in.”

“I’m better.” Sakura assured him. “And it wasn’t that bad – just chakra exhaustion mostly.” Her uncle’s shoulders relaxed and Sakura realized he must have been more worried than she thought.

“Good.” Uncle Hoshi stood and moved over to the bench, reaching under it to pull out a scroll that he held out to her. “We were going to give this to you earlier, after the chūnin exams, but there never seemed to be time, and Motoichi told us that you’ve got an apprenticeship now.”

Sakura took the scroll carefully and unrolled it, opening it up and unsealing its contents: “Is this a chūnin kit?” She immediately began to look through the contents, cataloging what was in it. “Those are really expensive!”

The kit wasn’t quite Konoha standard, she noted, since there were only two bedrolls instead of the usual six and five of the six holsters had been discarded in favor of various tags. She pulled out a slim volume that was tucked under the medkit and flipped it open – _Rudimentary Sealing_ with the subtitle _How to Avoid a Preventable Accident._

“Uncle Hoshi….” Sakura didn’t recognize the author, but if her uncle had the book, it had probably belonged to one of her grandparents, making this even more valuable. “Thank you.” She turned and hugged him. “Thank you so much!”

He patted her back awkwardly. “We wanted to make sure that you had at least the basics to get started with.”

“This… this is _amazing_.” It was – the standard field kit could easily set someone back a month’s worth of pay – two or three if it was one of the high end ones, which this one was. “Thank you!”

*~*~*~*~*~*

She found Kakashi-sensei waiting for her outside of the district, leaning against a weapons shop and reading his book. He looked up as she came over to him, slipping the book into a pocket and straightening up.

“You look like you’re doing better.” He commented as he started walking towards the center of town.

Sakura fell into step beside him, walking on his good side, and nodded. “I am. Are we doing training today?” She thought she was ready, if they were, and she’d done good against the Mist kunoichi – much better than she’d thought she’d have done before the chūnin exams.

“Not today.” Kakashi-sensei said, his eyes crinkling up as he smiled. “We’re leaving on a mission in a few days, so I want to you to check your kit and spend the next couple of days researching the Land of Waterfalls – our diplomatic relations with them especially.”

She blinked and then asked, “What type of mission?” Because it wouldn’t take her two days to research Waterfall – the country was a small one and famous for their dyes.

“Escort.” Kakashi-sensei didn’t seem worried about briefing her as they walked, so it clearly wasn’t a secret. “The Daimyo is sending one of his ambassadors there – the ambassador’s retinue will be in Konoha at the end of the week and we - and four other shinobi – will escort it the rest of the way to Waterfall, remain for the duration of the negotiations, and escort the ambassador back to Konoha.”

“Who else will we be working with?” Sakura asked, already planning on what she was going to pack – this didn’t sound like a quick mission, so she’d need at least a few changes of clothes.

A shrug from Kakashi-sensei. “We’ll find out when the ambassador arrives. Until then, do the research and make sure that your kit is in order. I’ll look it over the day before we leave.”

“Yes sensei.” Sakura immediately began to review her kit before suddenly relaxing –she had a kit now. An official one even, with everything she was supposed to have in it, but she’d have Iruka-sensei and maybe Genma look at it first.

A hand dropped on her head and she looked up in time to see Kakashi-sensei vanish in a whirl of leaves, leaving her alone in the middle of the street. She blinked and then turned towards Uzumaki-san’s house. Maybe he’d have something on Waterfall.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

She spent the next morning reading Iruka-sensei and Uzumaki-san’s books on Waterfall – there wasn’t lot positive about it, since apparently Waterfall had accepted a contract to assassinate the first Hokage, but the assassin had failed at killing the Hokage but succeeded in killing two of his step-siblings – before heading towards the library to see if there was anything else.

She had almost made it when she saw Hinata. “Hinata!” She jogged over – she hadn’t realized that Team Eight was back, but she should have, since the mission was only supposed have lasted less than a week. “How did the mission go?”

The girl jumped slightly before turning, seeming to shrink into herself as she fiddled with her fingers. “It…” Hinata broke off and started again as Sakura’s heart sank. If it had gone well, she wouldn’t be hesitating. “Can we do lunch?”

“Sure.” Sakura glanced at the sun – she still had time before she needed to be anywhere – and nodded. “I don’t have anything planned until this afternoon, so I have a bit.” She shrugged and said impulsively. “How about ramen? It’s filling.” Not to mention that the ramen stand was casual, so hopefully it would help the other girl relax.

“Alright…” Hinata nodded as Sakura led the way towards the center of town, making idle small talk. Whatever Hinata wanted to talk about, she might talk more if Sakura could put her at ease.

Over lunch, Hinata told her about the mission and Sakura felt her stomach clench as Hinata described being ambushed by the Iwa nin, of having Shino’s brother poisoned and how Kiba and Akamaru had almost died because of Team Seve – because of Sasuke. Again.

She poked at her noodles while she tried to get her thoughts in order, but Hinata looked miserable and she had to say something.

“Thank you.”

Hinata looked startled. “What?”

Sakura’s mouth twisted into what she hoped was a smile. “Thank you. I’m grateful what you tried to do.” And she was – Team Eight had no reason to go out of their way for Sasuke, especially after Kiba had nearly died going after him – and besides, “We can try again the next time the bugs lay eggs, right?”

Hinata nodded, her expression slowly relaxing.

“Then you succeeded.” Sakura shrugged. “And we can go and bring Sasuke back, even if he doesn’t want it.”

“Oh.” Hinata relaxed completely and managed a smile. “That makes sense.”

Sakura grinned back at her. “It does. Which is why it will work.”

The rest of lunch was relaxed and Sakura left Hinata feeling better. At least about Team Eight. About Sasuke… she wasn’t sure. Was he really worth the rest of them nearly dying? Again and again?

_In the ninja world, those who break the rules are trash, that's true, but those who abandon their friends are worse than trash._

Kakashi-sensei’s words came back to her and she almost flinched. No. They needed to get Sasuke back. They had to.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Sakura fidgeted as Kakashi-sensei looked through her pack – Genma and Iruka-sensei had _both_ looked at it the night before and Sakura still didn’t know why Genma had looked so amused – and waited to hear his verdict. The weather was supposed to be mild for the next two weeks, so she hadn’t packed any extreme weather gear, and she was suddenly worried that Kakashi-sensei say something.

“Not bad.” He leaned back, sounding satisfied. “A little heavy on tags, but if that’s something you want to specialize in, we can start working on using them more in fights.”

“I’m not sure yet.” Sakura admitted. “But I’d like to learn more, if you don’t mind.” She hadn’t started the sealing book yet, since she had focused on learning about Waterfall, but she was hoping that she’d have time to get started.

Kakashi-sensei stood and Sakura slipped her bag onto her shoulders, following him as he headed towards the main gates, where they would meet the rest of their team and join up with the clients. She grinned when she saw Kurenai-sensei and Shino standing off to one side, both with packs sitting by their feet.

Shino nodded at her and Sakura grinned – having someone her own age and skill level was nice – and maybe she could talk to Kurenai-sensei about genjutsu while they were walking.  Not to mention if they were going to be spending time in a foreign country with a diplomatic team, she’d rather have Shino there.

“Hatake.” Kurenai-sensei nodded at him and then smiled at Sakura. “Haruno-chan.”

“Kurenai-sensei.” Sakura looked around, lifting her hand to block the sun from her eyes. “Is there anyone else here yet?”

“Right here.” Genma walked up, followed by a brown haired man with a face guard and a slightly blank expression. Sakura shifted a little closer to Kakashi-sensei, slightly unnerved. “Tenzo was assigned to us this morning.” He tossed a scroll to Kakashi-sensei, who caught it and stuck it in a pocket without looking at it. “You’re team leader Hatake, by the way, since you decided to skip out on the briefing.” He sounded annoyed, but Sakura couldn’t tell if it was Kakashi-sensei had skipped the briefing or because Kakashi-sensei was in charge.

“That’s fine, I knew someone would fill me in.” Kakashi-sensei turned and headed towards the wagons that Sakura could see just outside the gate. “Let’s move, we wouldn’t want to keep the ambassador waiting.”


	10. Chapter the Seventh

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which there is an escort mission, traveling, and Kakashi begins to train Sakura

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to [elena](https://archiveofourown.org/users/elenathehun) for beta reading this

The second day they were on the road, Kakashi-sensei led Sakura a little away from the caravan, though not out of earshot, and into the undergrowth of the massive trees. Sakura refrained from asking questions, even if she was curious as to why they were splitting away from the main group - they were still close to Konoha, there shouldn’t have been any danger, but everything that the Academy had taught her said that this was a bad idea.

 

Kakashi-sensei finally stopped and Sakura waited patiently for him to speak.

 

“This should be a simple B-rank, so while we’re on the road, I’m going to teach you the basics of tracking when I have time.”

 

Sakura barely kept from bouncing in place, because this was something that Kakashi-sensei was famous for and he was taking the time to teach her - this was more important and _better_ than him giving her a training goal.

 

Kakashi-sensei waited for a few seconds before continuing and Sakura immediately began to pay attention. “The most important part of tracking anything will be how well you can use your sense of smell.”

 

Sakura wrinkled her nose and took an experimental sniff, but didn’t smell anything beyond damp earth and the faint hint of honeysuckle, which had started to bloom in the last few days, and under it all the general clean smell of being out of the village proper.

 

“Your Academy profile didn’t mention anything about any heightened senses, so we’re going to have to do this the hard way.” Kakashi-sensei paused for a moment before continuing. “It’s similar to water walking, except I want you to - slowly! - increase the chakra flow to your nose.”

 

Sakura focused inward and slowly began to draw her chakra towards her nose, biting her lip as it tried to slip from her grasp and go wherever it wanted, but she’d been the best at chakra control since she was _six_ and she wasn’t going to let years of effort be in vain. If she wanted her chakra to go to her nose, _it was going to go to her nose_.

 

She yelped as the smell of honeysuckle became overwhelming and damp earth mixed with what might have been the dung of a nearby forest creature and she sneezed as the faint hint of smoke drifted past.

 

“..... _Sakura. Sakura!”_

 

She cut the chakra to her nose with one last sneeze and realized that Kakashi-sensei had gripped both of her shoulders and looked like he might be about to start shaking her. Once he realized that she wasn’t lost in the competing smells, he took a step back.

 

“I said slowly.” He commented dryly as Sakura sneezed again, trying to clear out the mucus.

 

Sakura sniffed, hoping to dislodge more the excess snot, and didn’t bother to glare. “I thought that was slowly.”  

 

“Not even close.” Kakashi-sensei handed her a handkerchief and let her blow her nose before clapping his hands together. “Now do it again.”

 

Sakura sniffed again and then began to draw chakra the chakra back towards her nose - much more slowly this time, but at least now she knew _what_ she was supposed to be feeling as she did it.

 

“That’s enough.” Kakashi-sensei was watching her more closely and she immediately stopped as he continued, “You’re never going to be as good as someone that naturally has a sensitive nose, but by the time you’re done, they’ll be the only ones with better noses.” He paused before resuming, “Keep your chakra at this level for the rest of the day - your reserves are big enough now - to give your brain time to adjust to the new input and as you get used to it, you’ll _slowly_ increase the amount of chakra you use.”

 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

Sakura wrinkled her nose - the horses _stunk_. The soldiers stunk. Everything stunk and she wondered how Kiba put up with this every day. She sniffed miserably and shifted slightly, trying to get downwind of the horses, but there wasn’t enough of a breeze under the trees to help disperse the smells, and she wasn’t going to stop channeling the chakra into her nose - Kakashi-sensei thought she could do this, so she was going to do it. Even if it felt like all of the snot in her nose was trying to escape.

 

“What are you doing?”

 

Sakura barely refrained from jumping as the sixth shinobi - Tenzo, she thought - appeared behind her, his face blank. She resisted the urge to fidget; something about the older shinobi’s chakra or his lack of expressions made her slightly uneasy and the fact she couldn’t tell if he was doing it on purpose or not irritated her.

 

“Kakashi-sensei wants me to get used to channeling chakra to my nose.” She said finally. There wasn’t any reason _not_ to tell him and Kakashi-sensei hadn’t said to keep what he was teaching her a secret.

 

Tenzo was silent for a moment before he sighed and handed her a handkerchief. “Here. This will help as your nose adjusts.”

 

Sakura took it and immediately blew her nose, clearing the snot so that a fresh wave of smells could assault her. She sneezed.

“It gets better.” Tenzo said dryly. “Give it about a week before you try to up the amount of chakra you’re channeling though, otherwise your nose will be so stopped up its useless.”

 

She nodded - she’d double check with Kakashi-sensei first, but Tenzo sounded like he knew what he was talking about - and tried to hand the handkerchief back, but Tenzo waved her away.

 

“Keep it - I have more and you can give it back _after_ you’ve washed it.”

 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

Four days into the mission, Sakura was _bored_. The mission to Wave had been shorter and they’d barely been a day and a half from Konoha before they’d been ambushed - but with four jōnin and the ten civilian guards, regular bandits weren’t going to bother with them, leaving Sakura and Shino to circle the caravan continuously, reporting to either Genma or Tenzo after each circuit. Sakura wasn’t sure what Kakashi-sensei and Kurenai-sensei were doing, only that they’d vanished into the ambassador’s personal wagon yesterday and hadn’t come out yet, except to check in with Genma occasionally.

 

She thought Shino was just as bored, even if he didn't _say_ anything. She couldn't think of another reason that he'd taken to collecting insects and storing them in a scroll - though it could just have been a hobby of his.

 

There wasn’t even the distraction of _new_ scenery. She knew that the massive trees that surrounded Konoha eventually tapered off and vanished, as they had during the mission to Wave, but the forest was much, much larger when they headed north - Tobei, one of the younger guards, had told them that the forest was almost a five day walk until the edge and Genma had confirmed it, when she’d doubled checked with him later. The only change was the chakra in the trees starting to thin, as the Hashirama trees were replaced with regular cedar and oak and then nearly vanishing entirely, leaving the air feeling empty and thin.

 

“Bored?”

 

She jumped as Genma came up behind her, turning in place and trying desperately to look as though she wasn't. Every teacher she'd had (excepting Kakashi-sensei, who hadn't said anything one way or the other) had told the students that complaining about guard duty was a good way to get assigned extra work.

 

Genma’s lips twitched in amusement. “You can say yes - everyone gets bored, Haruno.” He tilted his head back and studied the sky for a moment before dropping his gaze back down, taking in her and Shino, who had come up behind her.

 

“Tell you what, as you do the patrols for the rest of the day, Haruno, I want you to come up with two separate ways to attack the caravan. Aburame, I want you to come up with two separate ways to _defend_ the caravan from these hypothetical attacks.”

 

“Without letting the other know what strategies we plan to employ?” Shino asked, pushing his glasses up his nose.

 

“Nope. If you want to put your heads together and come up with a joint defensive strategy, you can, but the two attack and defense plans need to be singular efforts.” Genma rolled the senbon around for a moment and Sakura was reminded of her cousin. “Me and Tenzo will go over them with you when we stop for the night.”

 

Sakura grinned - at least this was an interesting way to pass patrols.

 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

Genma did the same thing the next day, switching Sakura and Shino’s assignments, and for the joint defense strategy adding the difficulty of having two chūnin missing nin among the attacking forces.

 

“Yesterday wasn’t bad,” Genma commented, “but the two of you weren’t flexible enough, since both of you assumed that the civilian guards _would_ listen to you and that you’d have enough time for Aburame’s insects to incapacitate them.”

 

Sakura flushed - it had been her idea to incorporate the civilian guards into their defenses, since it seemed like a sensible solution to help cover the entire wagon train.

 

“You can’t rely on the civilians, no matter how well trained they think they are.” Tenzo said suddenly and Sakura twitched - even for shinobi, Tenzo was quiet and she could rarely tell where he was, which both annoyed her and made her uneasy, even if he had been nice the other day. “It’s better to only incorporate them minimally into your plans and prepare to work around them instead of with them.”

 

Genma glanced towards the sky before he looked at her and Shino. “Why don’t the two of you get started on the patrols and think about it?”

 

Shino headed towards the trees and Sakura followed.

 

“And try to be more flexible!” Genma called after them.

 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

“What are Marsh nin known for?” Sakura asked, wrinkling her nose as she thought. They weren’t one of the major villages, she knew that much, and she was fairly sure that they weren’t on the main continent.

 

Shino shrugged, frowning slightly. “I don’t know. Why? It was not considered a major threat to the village.”

 

That made sense - since Land of Marshes wasn’t on the continent proper, then there wasn’t much in the way of military threat that Marsh could bring against Konoha. Sakura bounced off a tree - not as tall as the trees at home and with less chakra than she was used to - and considered. “Maybe they use earth or water jutsus?” She suggested finally before huffing in annoyance. “They weren’t at the chūnin exams, I don’t think.”

 

Shino pulled ahead of her slightly, his insects spiraling outward around them, before buzzing back to him, while Sakura spread out her chakra, trying to see if she could sense anyone. So far she hadn’t, but the length of time that she _could_ extend her senses was increasing slowly. “Maybe they were too swamped with missions to be able to send anyone.”

 

Sakura nearly ran into another tree, before she whipped her head around to stare at him. That had been _terrible_.

 

Shino stared back at her, face just as blank as usual, and Sakura blinked. Had he not meant it as a joke? Maybe he hadn’t realized what it was?

 

“The use of earth and water jutsus make sense,” Shino agreed finally, but still sounded dissatisfied with not having all of the answers. Sakura couldn’t really blame him - she wasn’t really happy that she didn’t know anything about the Land of Marshes (or its shinobi) off the top of her head. It made her feel like she wasn’t doing _enough_. Wasn’t good enough - if she was, she’d _know_ all about whatever it was.

 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

When Kakashi-sensei and Kurenai-sensei finally emerged from the ambassador’s wagon the next day, Sakura and Shino were busying arguing about whether, if they were attacked by shinobi from the Land of Bears, they would actually have to worry about _actual_ bears (a valid concern they thought, since Tenzo had pointed out that the shinobi from Land of the Crescent Moon used wolves in a similar manner to the Inuzuka).  Kurenai-sensei came over to them as Kakashi-sensei headed for Genma and pulled him off to the side.

 

“Sakura, Shino.”

 

They looked up at Kurenai-sensei, abandoning the debate for the moment, and focused on what she had to say. The jōnin gave them both a small smile before she straightened, becoming more serious. “Hatake-san has asked me to work with the both of you on genjutsu while we’re travelling, since we have enough people that we don’t need the two of you to run patrol.” She glanced between the two of them, her gaze lingering a little longer on Sakura. “Hatake-san wants each of you to be able to perform at least two C-rank genjutsus by the time we reach the capital.”

 

“I already know two.” Sakura offered, hesitantly. “But they’re only  D-rank.”

 

Kurenai-sensei’s lips curled into a small smile. “Still, that’s a good start and will allow us to immediately move to learn the more complex jutsu, if I don’t have to go over the basics.”

Sakura preened a little at the praise and resisted the urge to bounce in place. Learning genjutsu with Uzumaki-san had been _interesting_ and the chance to learn it from someone that specialized in it? She probably wouldn’t get another opportunity like this until she made chūnin.

 

“We’ll start when we stop in a couple of hours.”

 

Sakura glanced at the sun, taking note of how low in the sky the sun was, and realized how quickly the day had gone.

 

“Will we wait until after dinner?” Shino asked suddenly. “Why? Because I wish to speak with Genma-san and Tenzo-san about the thought exercise they assigned us.”

 

Sakura looked at Kurenai-sensei, hoping the jōnin would agree.

 

“That shouldn’t be a problem, Shino.” Kakashi-sensei dropped a hand on Sakura’s shoulder. “Pushing it back an hour won’t affect anything one way or the other.”

 

Sakura looked up at her teacher, but watched Kurenai-sensei out of the corner of her eye, looking for her reaction. Kurenai-sensei pursed her lips but didn’t say anything, even if her expression was less than pleased, at least until she looked at Kakashi-sensei over Sakura’s shoulder and sighed.

 

“It can wait.” She glanced over in Genma’s direction. “I would like to hear what Shiranui-san has been teaching you.”

 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

That night, the six of them sat a little ways off from the rest of the caravan, though still within easy shouting distance, and waited while Sakura and Shino prepared a fire - Kakashi-sensei had taken cooking duty for the evening, claiming that he didn’t want to have to deal with Kurenai-sensei or Tenzo’s absolutely terrible cooking.

 

“Good point.” Genma said drily, as they pulled out plates and cups from their packs while Kakashi-sensei took a scroll out of his pack and unsealed some dough and meat before he started making dumplings. “I’ll take clean up duty as long as Kurenai, especially, doesn’t cook.”

 

“I’m not that bad.” Kurenai-sensei didn’t look up from a small notebook she was reading. “If you want bad food, let Inosuke take cooking duties during a mission.” A nail tapped against her plate and Sakura watched Tenzo turn slightly green.

 

“Never let that man near a campfire.” Tenzo had been hovering over Kakashi-sensei’s shoulder, now he began wrapping the meat dumplings in foil and placing them on the edge of the flames. Genma nudged them a little closer when he thought the other man wasn’t looking.

 

“I’ll keep that in mind, thanks.” Genma said dryly. “But I doubt we run in the same circles.”

 

Sakura exchanged a glance with Shino - it was like the jōnin had forgotten they were even there.

 

On the heels of that thought, Tenzo turned to look at the two of them. “What did you two come up with for the attack involving the Bear shinobi?”

 

Genma looked up from the fire and gave them an encouraging nod as Kurenai returned her notebook to a pocket, focusing her attention on them. It was slightly unnerving.

 

Sakura frowned as she thought. “Do they have bears?”

 

Genma’s eyebrow went up, but he shrugged. “Sure, why not? Two of them have ninkuma with them.”

 

“I would instruct the caravan to keep moving.” Shino’s voice started out soft, but grew more confident as he continued. “Why? Because there would be no time to maneuver everyone into a defensive position while my Kikaichū disperse and begin to drain the enemy’s chakra. In order to prevent the caravan from being forced to stop, I would also send out shadow clones to engage with the enemy.”

 

“Alright.” Tenzo began to pull the foil packets out of the coals and pass them out. “Haruno, what about you?”

 

Sakura took a few seconds to make sure she was sure of her answer - she didn’t want to get it wrong while Kakashi-sensei was sitting there, watching the two of them, and she abruptly wished that he was reading his stupid book, so that she could pretend that he wasn’t paying attention to her.

 

“First,” she said slowly, “I would alert the civilian guards that there are enemy incoming. If they’re professionals, then they probably have some sort of protocol in place for attacks. At least, that’s what my mom says about the caravan that she travels with.”

 

There was also her father, but Sakura didn’t know if he was officially assigned as a caravan guard or if he had other duties as Mebuki Tsukihana’s husband, and anyway, her mother’s security arrangements weren’t the point right now. The point was the fact that civilian guards had response plans in place in case of bandit attack, so Sakura could leave them to guard the actual wagons.

 

“I would then move away from the caravan and circle around behind the enemy and use a combination of exploding tags and projectiles to attack, adding to the confusion with smoke bombs and genjutsu.”

 

Sakura stopped and waited nervously - she knew that there were better ways to do it and that any of the jōnin probably had much, much better plans, but she thought she had managed to work out a way that was within the skills she had.

 

“What about the bears?” Kakashi-sensei asked, putting his plate down.

 

“Exploding tags.” Sakura said promptly, as Shino bit into his meat pie. “They’re _bears_.” She had only had a somewhat vague idea of what a bear even looked like, let alone how to beat one. They were big though, she knew that much.

 

Genma looked amused. “I’m not sure that would work,” he said, “but it would definitely hurt the bears, so that’s an acceptable solution.”

 

“Lightning jutsus work.” Kakashi-sensei offered as he began making more meat pies. Tenzo pulled some dried vegetables out of his pack as he did, muttering something under his breath.

 

“You chidori’d a _bear_?” Genma asked, sounding incredulous and Kurenai-sensei suddenly sounded like she was choking. Sakura gaped at her teacher - she’d only seen him use the attack once, back in Wave, and all she could imagine was Kakashi-sensei charging at a massive fur covered mountain with a handful of lightning.

 

Kakashi-sensei stared at him for a moment, clearly struggling, before settling on, “I used Rairyūdan.”

 

Kurenai-sensei was still making muffled choking noises.

 

“Shino, I’m assuming that you were planning on using the Kikaichū to take care of the bears?” Tenzo asked after a second, clearly determined to get the lesson back on track.

 

Shino nodded. “They are more than capable of absorbing the chakra of several opponents, so they should be able to weaken the bears.”

 

“Not bad.” Genma rolled his senbon in his mouth as he thought. “Aburame, you need to be more proactive - any chūnin or jōnin level shinobi will have enough chakra to cause damage, maybe even achieve their objective before your Kikaichū bring them down. If you don’t carry a large amount of exploding tags or kunai, you’re going to be at a disadvantage in any fight where you might be outnumbered - your kekki genki can’t take care of everything.”

 

There was a pause and Sakura noticed that the air had cooled while they were eating, the fire mostly keeping the slight chill away before Genma turned to her.

 

“Your plan relies on the guards being trained and having regular practice drills; not always a guarantee, so you need to account for that. Using genjutsu isn’t a bad plan, but you’ll probably need more practice before you’re effective enough to use it against multiple opponents in a combat situation.” He glanced over at Kurenai-sensei. “Luckily, you have someone here that can work with you on that.” A pause and he continued. “And you might want to figure out how much firepower you actually need to stop a ninkuma.”

 

“A lot.” Kakashi-sensei said, pulling the second round of meat pies out of the fire. “It’s a lot.”

 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

Kurenai-sensei took over after they’d cleaned up the utensils, sitting across from them, letting the fire cast shadows over her face. “Due to a change in the mission parameters, you are going to need to learn at least two genjutsu within the week, before we come into range of the Waterfall border patrols.”

 

Sakura felt her stomach drop - the last time that she’d been forced to learn new techniques on the fly in the middle of a mission had been back in Wave, when Kakashi-sensei had been hurt and Sasuke and Naruto had nearly died - but forced herself to focus. If Kurenai-sensei and Kakashi-sensei thought she and Shino needed to know these jutsus, than they had a reason for it. And she’d just learned _two_ genjutsu hadn’t she, back in Konoha, while she was waiting on Kakashi-sensei to return. She could do this.

 

She kept listening to Kurenai-sensei. “The first one you’ve already seen done, back in the chūnin exams - Kokoni Arazu no Jutsu, which creates an illusionary image that can be placed over a large area.”

 

“Like the caravan?” Shino asked and Sakura’s gaze was drawn to the campfires that signaled the location of the wagon drivers and guards, since the servants ate separately, on the other side of the wagon train. Shino’s expression didn’t change. “It will be made more difficult if we are expected to maintain the illusion while the caravan is in motion.”

 

“Only the ambassador’s wagon.” Kurenai-sensei corrected. “And your jutsus will be layered over my own, but they must be as good as you can make them.”

 

That relaxed Sakura - if Kurenai-sensei was providing the bottom layer of illusions, than she and Shino weren’t expected to do it on their own - and she took  a breath. “What’s the other jutsu?”

 

Kurenai-sensei’s eyebrow went up, but she obliged Sakura. “It’s a jutsu designed to upset the inner ear and disrupt balance, while also causing nausea, dizziness, and eventual unconsciousness.” She positioned her hands where they could both see them. “The seals are Bird, Serpent, Dragon, Ram and Ox.”

 

Sakura ran through the seals quickly, careful to not include any jutsu, in order to see how fast she could transition between seals - some seals blended into each other better than others, and having to readjust in the middle of battle could be deadly. Bird, Serpent and Dragon went smoothly, but she faltered a little between Dragon and Ram, but the shift from Ram to Ox was much better.

 

She noticed Shino doing the same out of the corner of her eye before she refocused on the hand seals, adding chakra to the first seal and feeling the way that it flowed before cutting it, adding chakra to another seal on each run through, until the only seal she hadn’t added chakra to was the last one.

 

“Are you ready?” Kurenai-sensei’s voice grabbed her attention and Sakura nodded. Kurenai-sensei continued, “Tenzo has agreed to be the first test subject for you, Sakura. Shino, Shiranui has agreed to help with you.” Her hands formed the shape of the bird seal. “I will be monitoring so that if something goes wrong I can intervene.”

 

Sakura began to shape the seals, slowing herself down so that she could be sure to get it right - Uzumaki-san had made a point to tell her, _“Go slow that first time. Feel how the chakra is being shaped and how your intentions are shaping it. Genjutsu, more than any of the other arts, is shaped with intention - if you have some kernel of the reaction you’re trying to shape, even if it’s a pale reflection, the jutsu will be that much stronger.”_

 

 _Dizziness_ , Kurenai-sensei had said, so Sakura deliberately pulled up the memory of the time she’d gotten a concussion during training - a bad hit by Naruto, who’d acted like the world was ending - and pulled what she could remember of the dizziness and nausea and used that to focus the genjutsu before releasing it.

 

Tenzo’s eyes went blank for a second before he paled and tried to stand, stumbling as he did. Kakashi-sensei grabbed his shoulder, steadying him. Tenzo looked better for a few seconds and Sakura watched him carefully - he hadn’t shaken off the genjutsu, she could feel that fact it was still active - and was rewarded when he staggered over to the bushes and vomited at the same time Kurenai-sensei snapped out, “Kai!” and broke the jutsu.

 

Sakura glanced over at Genma, who was sitting very, very still and then at Shino, who was focused on the jōnin. Genma tilted his head back and pinched the bridge of his nose, before looking at Shino.

 

“Not bad. I definitely didn’t want to move very quickly.” Genma glanced over at Tenzo. “She hit you a little harder huh?”

 

“A little.” Tenzo accepted a water canteen from Kurenai-sensei. “If she can do that during a fight, she’ll stop her opponent every time.”

 

If she could do it during a fight - the jutsu was five seals long and she needed to concentrate to get the effect she just had, but if she could cut the time needed down, if she could learn to pull the sensation up a little quicker….

 

“We’ll work on it.” Kakashi-sensei said. “All it takes is some practice and motivation.”

 

Sakura eyed her teacher warily. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know what his idea of “motivation” was, now that he wasn’t distracted by the boys.

 

“That was very good Sakura.” Kurenai-sensei smiled at her. “Most genin have trouble achieving the correct effects so quickly.”

 

Sakura couldn’t help the grin that appeared - she’d gotten it right!

 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

Shino was walking beside her - Kurenai-sensei had pulled them off patrols so that she could work with them on the genjutsus, which meant there wasn’t much else to do now besides walk beside one of the wagons and practice casting Magen: Kokoni Arazu no Jutsu and concealing the wagon driver from the other travelers. So far, it was only working if the civilians weren’t paying attention and it wasn’t fooling the jōnin at all. It had only been a day and Sakura was already missing patrols.

 

“Better than nothing.” Genma commented sourly, before heading towards the back of the caravan. Sakura had wilted and Shino had glared at the jōnin before determinedly running through the hand seals again. Sakura had taken a deep breath and joined him, both of them ignoring the slightly raised voices from the back of the wagon train.

 

Sakura ran through the seals as Shino studied her critically. “Your tiger seal is off by a fraction of a degree.” He said finally. “It may be affecting the stabilization of the genjutsu.”

 

Sakura frowned and looked at her hands. He was probably right - she never got her thumbs quite straight enough and usually had to be reminded to straighten them out. It usually didn’t matter, since she didn’t know any fire style jutsus, but with genjutsu the more precise the hand seals the better the jutsu would turn out, which was why the more complicated jutsus were nearly impossible to pull out in the middle of combat, unless you were a specialist.

 

“Right.” She corrected her thumbs minutely and was pleased that the flow of her chakra felt smoother. She grinned at Shino. “Thanks. It would have taken me awhile to notice that on my own.”

 

“It’s not a problem.” Shino shrugged. “Why? Because we are comrades.” He paused for a second before continuing. “And you would do the same for me.”

 

That sounded more like a question than Sakura liked and she frowned at him. “Of course I would.” She would - Shino… well, she’d never been friendly with him, but the last week had revealed a dry sense of humor and planning out strategies with him had been fun, like the retrieval mission they’d planned together in the village.

 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

“Did Hatake-san teach you genjutsu before this?” Kurenai-sensei sounded mildly curious as she corrected Sakura’s positioning. They were working on the first genjutsu - Sakura was having more trouble with this one, since apparently area illusions were harder for her than causing physical effects were, but she was passable. Not as good as Kurenai-sensei wanted them, but not bad for her age.

 

Shino wasn’t having as much trouble with it, since he was using his bugs to spread the effects out more evenly over the target area (Sakura wasn’t sure how that worked exactly, but didn’t want to seem rude by asking, in case it was a clan thing) but he hadn’t had as much success with the vertigo causing one. Unfortunately, he couldn’t practice that one as they travelled, since none of the civilians were willing to put up with nausea while they had to be working.

 

Tobei, one of the younger guards, was willing to be a test subject in the evening, and he could be counted on to bring some of the younger servants with him - they were willing to help out, provided that they got to ask questions about Konoha and being a shinobi in general. Sakura and Shino let the jōnin answer the questions for the most part, but being able to spend time in the evenings with people close to their own ages was nice.

 

Sakura shook her head, running through the seals again, this time at half speed and molding her chakra until the last seal when she cut the chakra flow. “No - Uzumaki-san was the one that helped me get started.” She grinned. “And he’s been letting me borrow books on psychology, so that when I get to the higher level genjutsus, I can use them more effectively.”

 

“Kotaro Uzumaki?” Kurenai-sensei looked surprised, though Sakura wasn’t sure why.

 

“Yes, sensei.” Sakura nodded. “He agreed to help supervise my work on the paralysis jutsu and offered to help with my genjutsu.”

 

“He’s an excellent genjutsu user,” Kurenai-sensei said finally. “Though I think he focuses more on Fūinjutsu these days.” She gave Sakura a small smile. “You have a talent for genjutsu - if you ever need help after this mission, feel free to ask me questions.”

 

Sakura nodded - she’d remember that, even if she already had Uzumaki-san to help. Something told her this wasn’t something that Kurenai-sensei would offer lightly.

 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

The next morning the caravan rolled out of the forest, leaving the shade of the trees for an open plain that looked like it stretched for miles, until Sakura realized that even if the land _looked_ completely flat was a series of gently rolling hills that concealed gullies and dry creek beds.

 

She didn’t like it, didn’t like the feeling of being exposed that it left her.

 

“That’s normal.” Genma explained, when she had timidly mentioned it to him - she’d been avoiding him, since he’d snapped at them earlier in the week, but none of the other jōnin were around, and Tobei had just looked at her blankly when she’d said something. Genma continued, “There isn’t a Konoha shinobi that hasn’t felt disorientated the first time we leave the forest, which is why most genin teams take at least a couple of missions either to the coast or towards Grass before they take the exams.”

 

“We didn’t.” Sakura protested. They hadn’t - Team Seven had done a lot of D-ranks, but the only other mission was the B-rank that had been upgraded to first an A-rank with the addition of the Demon Brothers and then a S-rank with the appearance of Zabuza and Haku, not to mention Gato.

 

Shino pushed his glasses further up his nose. “Why? Because you spent several weeks longer than the rest of the genin teams on D-ranks.”

 

Sakura didn’t have anything to say to that - the D-ranks had been in an effort to at least try and get them to work as a team and eventually they’d managed it, but between the three of them, it had probably taken longer than Kakashi-sensei had intended it to.  

 

“Where did your team go?” She asked, if only to move the topic along.

 

Shino’s eyebrow went up, but he answered readily enough. “Uzushio Sukoshi. It’s a small fishing village on the southeast coast…”

 

“Near river country.” Sakura finished. When Shino and Genma looked at her, she shrugged awkwardly. “My aunt lives there. She sent two of my cousins to Konoha to train at the Academy.”

 

They’d just started this year, were living with her Aunt Mari and Uncle Tsuruki, and Sakura hadn’t spent much time around them, but she knew they were there, mixed in with her other cousins.

 

“Right.” Genma shook his head. “I hadn’t realized you had Uzushio in you. But back to the original question, the disorientation and feeling of being exposed are normal. They should ease in the next couple of days.”

 

“Shiranui-san, what is your specialty?” Shino asked.

 

Genma looked at him, eyebrow raised. “What makes you think I have one? Jōnin are well rounded as a general rule.”

 

“You must have one.” Shino’s brow furrowed. “Why? You are a tokubetsu jōnin, thus you must have some area in which you excel above the others. Besides, most jōnin do have something that they are focused on. Kurenai-sensei is focused on genjutsu and Hatake-sensei is renowned for his tracking abilities.”

 

“I specialize in poisons.” Genma said. “Mine aren’t as good as Suna’s, but they get the job done.”

 

Shino considered this. “Could you teach us? Why? Because it would be beneficial to learn from someone who uses them practically.”

 

Sakura stared at Shino before swinging her gaze towards Genma. She hadn’t even considered asking him to go over the basics, but now that the idea was out there… “Please? Shino’s right, it would be interesting! Kakashi-sensei wouldn’t mind.”

 

Probably. She’d ask him.

 

Genma sighed. “On the way back, we can start with the basics. _If_ Yūhi and Hatake agree. But right now, you two need to focus on the genjutsus you’re trying to learn.”

 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

She did - she was making steady progress, but her Kokoni Arazu no Jutsu was still more unstable than Shino’s - but the question didn’t leave her mind. How hard _would_ it be to add learning about poisons to the list of things she wanted to try? So after she’d thought about it for a couple of days, she went to ask Kakashi-sensei.

 

“You want to learn poisons?” He frowned at her. “That takes years of study, _exclusive_ study.”

 

“I was just wondering if it was possible.” Sakura informed him. “Since Shiranui-san was talking about what he specialized in.”

 

Kakashi-sensei hummed thoughtfully. “You could focus on seals, genjutsu, and tracking or poison genjutsu and tracking. Or sealing, poison and tracking I suppose. But the tracking is nonnegotiable.” He paused. “On top of the taijutsu and ninjutsu we’ll be working on.”

 

Sakura bit her lip. Genjutsu wasn’t something she was willing to give up - she loved what Uzumaki-san had been teaching her and it was something that was _hers_. “Can I think about it?”

 

“It’s your choice.”

 

Which Sakura assumed that meant yes, but she hesitated. “But if Shiranui-san just goes over the basics with us, on the way back, that’s fine? Just so I can see if I’m interested.”

 

“Informed choices are the best choices.” He told her, tone dry. He paused for a moment and his gaze swept over the caravan until it landed on Genma, who looked away from his conversation with one of the older guards long enough to raise a hand in a lazy wave. That seemed to satisfy Kakashi-sensei, who placed a hand on her shoulder and steered her towards the knee high grass. “But we have enough time to work on tracking, so that’s what we’re going to do.”

 

They walked for a few minutes and Kakashi-sensei quizzed her on the various things she had smelled and where she had smelled them, how did she know what she was smelling. Sakura answered the best she could, hoping that it would be enough to show she was putting effort into what he was teaching her.

 

“Your sense of smell is getting better.” Kakashi-sensei sounded pleased as he continued. “Now, I want you to force as much chakra into your nose as possible, just so you know what your upper limit is.”

 

Sakura wrinkled her nose. “How I am supposed to know? Everything gets… blurry if I add too much chakra.” She couldn’t think of another way to describe it - every time she had gone too far past the limits she was used to, all of her senses had narrowed down only to what she was smelling, and even then, that was hard to separate, everything blending together until she wanted to puke.  It had only happened a couple of times since she’d started to - slowly - get used to feeding chakra into her nose at all times, but that was a couple of times too many as far as she was concerned.

 

“Pick on thing to focus on.” Kakashi-sensei frowned, his eye squinting slightly. “Pick the Nemizu river - you know what that smells like right?”

 

Sakura nodded - the Nemizu river started somewhere in Waterfall before heading into Fire Country, widening until it was nearly a mile wide in some places and splitting off to form several new rivers that flowed into the ocean in at least five different places. But the main river flowed just past Konoha, less than a mile to the west, and down past the capital until it drained into Hanguri Gulf.

 

During the founding, several underground channels had been created, diverting the flow of some of the water towards Konoha, where it was run through several seal matrixes and used as drinking water, leaving the actual springs in Konoha untouched unless in the event of a siege. But the river, as wide and as well used as it was, had the distinct odor of dropwort and fish that hung in the air for miles in every direction during the hotter months of the year and the trees could only filter so much.

 

Sakura took a breath and forced all of the chakra she could into her nose, sucking in a sharp breath as everything faded away, leaving only the smells. She forced herself to focus - she _knew_ what she was looking for, she could find it - until the faint hint of dropwort mixed with leaves and fish hit her. She only noticed because she was looking, so she funneled more chakra into her nose, trying to make it stronger, and choked when a sharp copper scent overwhelmed everything else, leaving her scrambling to try and stop it.

 

She choked again and then yelped as foreign chakra flooded in, leaving her gasping. She blinked at up at Kakashi-sensei through watery eyes. “What happened?”

 

“You pushed so much chakra into your nose you popped a vein.” He told her. “I didn’t mean for you to do that.” He looked worried as he carefully brought up a hand and Sakura held still - surely it hadn’t been that bad?. “I’m going to heal that now, since we’re getting closer to the Taki patrols and I don’t want your sense of smell compromised.”

 

“I smelled the river,” Sakura told him, her voice nasally as healing chakra worked its magic. “Not a lot, but there’s a lot of dropwort this year, that’s how I knew.” She sniffed as he leaned back. “I tried to make it clearer, that’s when I got the nosebleed.”

 

“Well, at least your range is decent.” Kakashi-sensei stood back up. “It won’t get any better and it’s going to take more effort for you to sort through the various smells than someone that was born with that ability, but it’s a starting point.”

 

Sakura nodded, still feeling slightly shaky. Is this what Inuzukas did _all of the time_? She didn’t like it and hoped she wouldn’t have to do it again anytime soon. “Do I have to be able to do that all of the time?” She didn’t like how tiny her voice was - she was supposed to be his apprentice! And that meant being able to keep up with him!

 

“No.” Kakashi-sensei voice was flat. “You’re _never_ to put that much chakra into your nose again, unless it’s a life or death situation. If you do it too often, you can permanently damage your sense of smell or your brain.”

 

His eye wrinkled in what was probably meant to be a smile, if Sakura hadn’t seen how worried he’d been when he was healing her nose. “Now, we’re going to work on your eyesight.”

 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

“That’s enough genjutsu.” Kurenai-sensei told them the next morning. “We passed the outer edges of Taki’s patrol boundary just before dawn, so you two are back to patrolling.”

 

Sakura and Shino exchanged a glance before Sakura tentatively asked, “Aren’t we still in Fire Country?”

 

“We are.” Genma said, clearly unhappy. “But because their capital city is right on the border, they’ve had a long standing - “

 

“- since before the village was founded,” Kurenai-sensei said serenely.

 

“- _long standing_ agreement with the Daimyo that allows their patrols to extend twenty miles within Fire Country territory.” Genma finished, sounding even unhappier. “We normally have an overlapping patrol, just to make sure they stay in that twenty mile limit, but with everything - “

 

The invasion and death of the Hokage.

 

“- Waterfall’s been a low priority.” Genma concluded. “Most of the patrols that would be here have been shifted over to cover the borders at Rice and Grass.”

 

“Why?” Shino asked, then answered his own question. “Sound and Iwa.”

 

“Sound and Iwa.” Kurenai-sensei agreed. “We aren’t expecting any trouble to come from Earth, since they’re in the fifth year of a drought but…”

 

“Earth’s troubles have never stopped Iwa before, so better safe than sorry.” Genma finished for her. “And Sound should be obvious.”

 

“But you two are not go out of earshot of the caravan.” Kurenai-sensei’s voice was firm. “And in even then, I’d prefer you not leave visual range if you can help it.”

 

“Yes sensei.”

 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

“Shino, come look at this!” Sakura leaned over the plant, crouching a little to get a better look at the bug – after the last two weeks, she’d figured out that the best way to get Shino’s attention was by asking questions about the various insects that she noticed on the foliage they traveled through. Not that it was hard, really, as the tall trees had slowly shrank until they disappeared entirely, leaving rolling hills that seemed to stretch out to the horizon, before those had changed into flat plain, covered in fields of wheat and soybeans that faded to a knee high grass in all directions. She stayed where she was as Shino wandered over, several of his insects heading in the direction of the wagons and their teachers.

 

She glanced over her shoulder as she expanded her chakra outwards, making sure the caravan was still in visual and sensory range - Kakashi-sensei would never forgive her if she made basic security blunder this close to foreign territory. But she thought it would be alright if they stopped for a minute - Tenzo had started his own loop right before them, so the area was most likely secure.  


As he stopped behind her, she transferred her gaze to him. “What is it?”  


The insect in question was a butterfly, she knew that much, but she wasn’t sure what type – it was delicate looking, with tan wings that slowly faded to a nearly sky blue at the very edges.  


“It’s a rustic butterfly.” Shino pushed his glasses further up his nose. “Why? Because it has the distinctive blue that signals that its poison sacs are full.”  


Sakura leaned a little closer, studying it more closely. “Really? Where at?” She carefully pulled on a pair of gloves and gently scooped the butterfly up. “Do you think Genma-san uses the poison on his senbon?”  


Shino’s head tilted to the side as he considered her second question. “I am unsure. Why? Because it takes more patience than most people – even shinobi – have to collect enough to be useful.” A pause. “There are small sacs that run from the antennae around the edges of the wing, creating a full loop.”  


Sakura peered at the wings, carefully pushing a little extra chakra into her eyes, enhancing her vision just a little bit, like Kakashi-sensei had shown her the other day, and could barely make out the small tube filled with poison. “It’s so pretty,” she breathed. “Is it a Fire Country native? Since we’re so close to the border, I mean.”

 

“It resides in both countries,” Shino said, “Though I believe Waterfall values it more for its use as a dye, once the poison has been removed. The shade of blue it creates is apparently to die for.”

 

Sakura narrowed her eyes as she stared at him. “I didn’t know your family was so well versed in dyes.”

 

“Only the insect based ones.” Shino settled his glasses more firmly on his nose. “It pays to know if one’s hive is considered a valuable commodity by outsiders for more reasons that its applications in the shinobi arts.”

 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

Kakashi-sensei narrowed his eye at the Shino and Sakura. “While we’re here, neither of you are to wander off _without_ telling us or on your own. And by on your own, I mean without each other.” He glanced between the two of them. “From now until we get back to this point, you are going to stay within five feet of each other. _Am I understood?_ ”

 

Sakura gulped and nodded, Shino doing the same beside her. She didn’t know what it was about being here that was worrying her teacher, but staying near Shino wouldn’t be an issue - they were in a foreign country, with a Hidden Village that wasn’t… well, they weren’t outright hostile but they weren’t friendly either. Kakashi-sensei looked satisfied as the caravan crested the last hill and then Sakura gasped as the capital of Land of Waterfall came into view.

 

The city was built into a bowl shaped depression and separated into three distinct levels, with each level joined by multiple stairs and one road that wound from the highest to lowest level. Sakura immediately climbed up the nearest wagon, with Shino following, and enhanced her sight, trying to get a better view - there was a low wall, only a little taller than Kakashi-sensei, around the edge of the bowl with only one gate in and out.

 

But the thing that made the city so unique, that each of the books had mentioned, was the waterfalls. Hundreds of them, draining from the top of the city and snaking winding routes through each of the levels, joining and separating at random, going under roads and bridges, until they all drained into a massive lake with a lone island in the center, on which there was growing a massive grove of trees.

 

The wall itself was painted a creamy white, with swirls of green and blue twisting around the top… She frowned and leaned down. “Kakashi-sensei, are those seals on the walls?”

 

Kakashi-sensei broke off the conversation he was having with Tenzo to glance at the wall. “Good eye.” His eye crinkled as he smiled at her. “Those are basic barrier seals, like we have in Konoha.”

 

Genma snorted. “ _Exactly_ like we have in Konoha.” He rolled his senbon around a few times before he glanced up at the two of them and looked as though he waited to say something, but subsided, his expression troubled.

 

“Enough.” Kurenai-sensei said flatly. “Shiranui, keep it under wraps for as long as we’re here.” She glanced at Kakashi-sensei. “Are we ready to go?”

  
Kakashi-sensei shrugged and motioned to the caravan leader, who clucked his tongue, urging the caravan towards the city gates.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think!


	11. Chapter the Eighth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which they arrive at their destination

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to [elenathehun](http://archiveofourown.org/users/elenathehun) for beta reading this chapter

The caravan were stopped at the gates of Takimizu, two civilian guards taking their papers while three men with Taki hitai-ate wandered up and down the caravan. The two shinobi didn’t touch anything, but the caravan guards watched them warily while Genma and Tenzo tracked them with their eyes.

Sakura stayed close to Kakashi-sensei and tried to breathe through her mouth as the scents of thousands of people living and working in close proximity hit her, a sudden shock after the week with the caravan, and wondered if _this_ was why Kakashi-sensei wore a mask. Shino stood next to her and she could hear the faint hum of his insects as they crawled under his jacket, he was standing that close to her.

“Ambassador Katzumi Okubo, with ten non shinobi guards, fifteen servants, six shinobi guards.” The first civilian guard, a man that looked older than her father with bright green hair and grey eyes, recited as he glanced over the entire caravan. “Duration of visit - minimum of two weeks, departure date unknown.” He gave Kurenai-sensei and Kakashi-sensei an unimpressed glance. “I’m assuming that you two are in charge of the shinobi portion of the guards?”

“We are,” Kurenai-sensei said mildly. “Yūhi Kurenai and Hatake Kakashi, with Shiranui Genma and Tenzo.”

“What about those two?” The second guard, who didn’t look much older than Genma, motioned to her and Shino, his expression incredulous, even if Sakura wasn’t sure why. “They can’t be shinobi.”

“They’re genin.” Kurenai-sensei’s tone remained mild, but her eyes had sharpened, and Sakura noticed that the Taki shinobi had started drifting over when she had announced her and Kakashi-sensei’s names. “In training.”

The older man handed the papers back to Kurenai-sensei with a grunt. “Well, keep them out of trouble - we don’t take kindly to foreigners making messes.”

Kurenai-sensei tucked the papers into her pouch and gave the guard a gentle smile. “Of course. What kind of teachers would we be if they got caught getting into trouble?”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

They were escorted the whole way by Taki shinobi and Sakura wished they hadn’t been - Kakashi-sensei would probably have let her and Shino wander a little further if they’d been on their own. _Especially_ the highest level, which looked like it was entirely made up of shops and stalls - her nose twitched at the different smells and she hoped she could come back to visit, if there was time, because there just seemed to be so much to explore.

The middle level was more boring and looked like it was all residential, though all of them had been painted in various shades of cream, with flowering bushes and trellises filled with blooms. As the caravan passed down the main street, people would come out to watch and Sakura studied them. The women wore what looked like a single piece of wrapped cloth and the older they were, the longer the cloth, with girls’ wraps barely touching their knees to elderly women completely covered from their throats to toes. The boys were dressed the same as the girls, but she didn’t see any boys her own age - maybe they were working or had apprenticeships? But why didn’t the girls?

The third level though… each of the houses was large and separated from its neighbor by a wall - some only as tall as Kakashi-sensei and others nearly twice that. The compound that the Konoha delegation would be staying in was a large two story building built next to the lake, with a wall surrounding it - taller than Kakashi-sensei, but not by much, with enough space between the walls and the main house to place the wagons out of the way.

“There’s public stables down the street, if you’d rather leave them there.” The Taki shinobi, a middle aged man with a long scar that started under light brown hair and ran down the side of his face to disappear under the high collared shirt he wore, said. Kakashi-sensei had stayed near him after telling Sakura to stick with Tenzo - she wasn’t sure _why_ , but had done what he’d wanted. “The other villas use them as well, since it keeps the smell in one place.” A glance at Kakashi-sensei. “Some people have more delicate noses than others.”

“Thank you for the offer.” Kurenai-sensei gave him a bland smile. “We’ll see what the ambassador and his head of house would prefer to do.”

Sakura noticed that Kurenai-sensei had taken the lead since they’d made it to the gates but she didn’t know why and desperately wanted to - she was sure that Kakashi-sensei was actually in charge and they had given their real names at the gates, even Genma and Tenzo, who weren’t instantly recognizable, so why lie about _this_?

The shinobi let his gaze drift over the caravan one last time, letting his gaze linger on the civilians and guards as they began unloading the wagons. “Well, remind the ambassador that if anyone wants to explore the city, he’s going to need to request chits from the city guard for that.” His smile was thin. “Any foreigner without one gets a quick trip to the jail before getting transferred over to _us_. I’m sure you’d all like to avoid that.”

That... that sounded like a threat. Sakura glanced between the two jōnin. Kakashi-sensei looked bored, while Kurenai-sensei’s smile grew a little sharper. “We appreciate the warning. I’ll be sure to pass it to the appropriate people.”

“Let’s get inside,” Tenzo began to herd her and Shino into the house. “We need to start thinking about patrol patterns.”

Shino waited until they were in the walls and out of earshot of most of the caravan. “Are we really going to have to patrol the house?” He sounded curious.

“No. The civilian guards will be in charge of that, though you will probably join them for a few of the patrols.” Tenzo led them towards the southwest corner of the house. “We’re here as a presence in the negotiations.”

Sakura frowned at him. “ _We’re_ going to be there?” She didn’t think that two genin would be allowed to sit in on negotiations between two countries. Well, maybe if it was Wind Country, since their Daimyo was allied with the Daimyo of Fire Country, but not a country that they weren’t friendly with.

Tenzo looked sheepish. “Well, probably not you two.” he allowed. “But your teachers will have some way for you to occupy your time. Until they get done, I want you to familiarize yourselves with the layout of the villa.”

“Villa?” Sakura committed the word to memory - if she needed to describe where they were staying, she didn’t want to get wrong directions if she misspoke.

“It’s a type of compound.” Tenzo told her. “I think that its most commonly used in Waterfall, but some of the richer places in Rivers and Hot Springs have them too.”

“What’s the difference?” Sakura asked, curious.

Tenzo considered for a moment. “Compounds are designed for several families to live in at once, often have their own sources of water as well as food storage, along with places for medics, teachers and other professions.”

Sakura nodded - that made sense. Ino’s family compound was large and housed most of the family in its walls and there was a spot for a medic-nin to stay and operate - several extended family members worked there on a rotational schedule when they weren’t on missions and Sakura and Ino had visited the building a lot when they were younger.

“Villas,” Tenzo continued, “are usually for one family, don’t have an independent water source if they’re in a city and aren’t nearly as self-sufficient, which makes them easier to infiltrate.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The villa itself was a built around a central courtyard with one large fountain at the center and four smaller ones stationed around it, designating the four cardinal directions. The central fountain was carved out of a cream colored stone - she made a note to ask what type it was later - and the statue in the center showed a woman perched delicately at the top of a tree, one hand reaching to the sky while the other appeared to help her balance. Water poured out of the reaching hand, falling onto the stone leaves and following a path back to the bottom of the fountain.

The four smaller fountains also had small statues of people - two male and two female - facing away from the central fountain, trapped in poses that suggested they were fleeing. Their faces were almost blank, but she couldn’t quite figure out what expressions the sculptor had been attempting and Sakura glanced between the five statues uneasily -  something about the placement or the expressions seemed off to her, but she wasn’t sure why.

Shino was examining the tiled floor of the courtyard with interest - the border designs depicted various insects and flowers that Sakura assumed were native to Waterfall - while the central tiles conveyed an abstract pattern.

Shino looked over at her. “I do not believe that there is anything like this in Konoha.”

“I don’t think so.” Sakura agreed with that - Konoha architecture and design always favored natural looks - trees and flowers were mainstays in decorations and most buildings were almost entire constructed of wood. What few fountains there were back home were carved in circles and mimicked the natural pools and springs in the area and she’d _never_ heard of anyone with tiled floors, not even from her aunt, who had been invited into almost every wealthy house in Konoha.

She moved through one of the openings in the first floor and out into the gardens that had been built in between the villa and the lake. They were beautiful, but Sakura was more interested in the wall that separated the villa _from_ the lake. Why would they keep away from the one feature the entire city was built around?

Sakura hopped up one of the willow trees and peered over the garden wall, Shino joining her after a moment, and the two of them looked up and down the shoreline. _All_ of the villas had some sort of wall separating them from the water.

“That’s weird.” Sakura commented absently. “Why would they do that? Is something wrong with the water?”

Shino frowned as well, releasing several insects to fly out over the water. “It is odd,” he agreed. “Surely some place with so much water would not avoid it, especially such a central source.”

“You two!” Genma stood in the archway leading to the garden. “Let’s go - you need to get your stuff into your rooms! You can play in the trees later!”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Their rooms were on the ground floor with the doors opening into the courtyard. Kakashi-sensei and Kurenai-sensei had a quiet discussion with the civilian guards and Genma and Tenzo were moved to the second floor, just down the hallway from the ambassador's rooms.

Kakashi-sensei and Sakura's room was simple, with two small beds placed against opposite walls and a standing closet next to the door. There was a window facing the street and Sakura looked at the shutters dubiously - they didn't look very sturdy and there weren't any locks on them, although maybe the walls were better security than they looked. She placed her pack on the ground at the foot of the bed and waited for Kakashi-sensei to finish his inspection.

He did and then pulled out a scroll, unsealing several blank tags, an ink pot and a brush. She drifted closer, curious as to what he was doing.

"If we were only going to be here a few days, I wouldn't bother with the tags and just tell you to make sure to carry anything valuable with you." He said, arranging several of the tags into a row. "But since we are going to be here for at least the next two weeks, this will work best."

Sakura watched as he started carefully inking the tags, each of his strokes smooth and sure.

"These are basic barrier seals - you can place them at the edges of a room and they'll keep out anyone not keyed into the tags during their construction." Kakashi-sensei finished one and pulled out a kunai and nicked his finger, pressing a bloody fingerprint at the bottom of the tag. "I'm not going to place them on the door - if we lock out the servants, they'll talk and the Taki shinobi will think we're hiding something - but I am going to seal the window."

He handed her the kunai and Sakura pricked her own finger, watching the blood well for a second before firmly pressing her finger to the tag. "Why the window? Because it's facing the street?"

"Partially." Kakashi-sensei handed her the second tag. "And because not sealing the window would be almost as suspicious as sealing the door."

Sakura frowned and watched as he created the third tag, paying attention to the brushstrokes and where they were positioned. She didn't know which she would chose, sealing or poisons, but she was determined to consider both of them equally, and that meant learning as much as she could.

"Because it'd seem like we're trying too hard to be not suspicious?" She asked - she thought that was why, but she wanted to be sure.

"Exactly." Kakashi-sensei took back the tags and placed them on each of the four sides of the window. “Assume that someone will search the room at least once, probably multiple times during while we’re here.”

“The servants?” Sakura was guessing here, but it seemed reasonable - if you were going to infiltrate a large house like this one, servant was the best way to do it, especially since the ambassador would _have_ to hire at least some locals for a temporary stay of just a few weeks.

Kakashi-sensei nodded and pulled out another set of tags and motioned to her pack. “Take out your clothes and whatever items that you think you’re going to be using on a day to day basis and then we’ll seal the packs until we’re ready to leave or there’s an emergency.”

Sakura did as she was told, hesitating over the book of seals she’d brought. It was a family heirloom, but sealing was so boring that who would be interested in it?

“Sakura.” Kakashi-sensei’s tone had a hint of impatience, so she stuffed the book in one of the drawers under her spare shirts before she turned and handed the pack to him, watching him create another set of tags - again with a blood seal - and set the packs into it, placing the tag itself on the underside of the standing closet.

“Don’t activate the seal until _after_ you pull the tag out from under the closet.” Kakashi-sensei rose and dusted his hands off before heading for the door. “Let’s go see check the rest of the house and see if you can spot all of the danger spots.”

Sakura followed him, hoping that she’d spot enough of them to pass muster.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The next morning they woke up at dawn and gathered in the kitchen, Kurenai-sensei gently shooing out what kitchen staff there was with the promise that they wouldn’t take too long before leaving again. The older woman in charge seemed ready to take a break, but Sakura noticed a tall, willowy girl that tried to linger and marked her face in her memory - the older girl was probably just curious about the foreigners, but might also be a plant by either the Daimyo or Taki or even both.

“Shiranui, Tenzo, you two are going to go see Arata while Yūhi and I sit in on negotiations.” Kakashi-sensei pulled out two iron coins and handed them to her. “You and Shino aren’t cleared enough to sit in on those, so you’ll spend the mornings with Tenzo and Shiranui and your afternoons are free. Kurenai wants you back here by no later than sundown and you’re to report to me, Kurenai, or Shiranui when you get back.”

“While you’re with Genma and Tenzo, Genma has final say.” Kurenai-sensei pulled out two small pouches. “These are your allowances for the week - it’s to pay for food and incidental expenses -”

“Bribes,” Genma explained, “If you need them.”

Kurenai-sensei looked annoyed for an instant before refocusing on Sakura and Shino. “Incidental expenses are considered things like bathhouse entry fees, toll fees from one level to the next, and other minor expenses. Konoha recognizes the need for a purse during long term assignments and it won’t come out of your pay at the end of the mission.”

“Anything else you buy is considered a personal expense and out of your own pocket, so don’t spend all of your Konoha allowance on souvenirs or food in the first day.” Tenzo continued the explanation calmly and Sakura wondered how often he and Kurenai-sensei had worked together, to be able to act so seamlessly. “Stay in public areas, if a Taki shinobi tells you to go with them, send a clone to get one of us.”

Tenzo was interrupted as smoke erupted from where Kakashi-sensei was standing and a grey and white dog with a black Mohawk appeared on the floor. Sakura coughed and waved smoke out of her face as the other four did the same, looking irritated, which Kakashi-sensei ignored as motioned to the dog. “Shiba will go with them.”

Sakura crouched down to get a better look at the dog - he came up to her mid-thigh - and thought it looked familiar. He sniffed her cautiously before going over and giving Shino the same treatment. “I can track ‘em now.” His voice was higher pitched and nasally and Sakura knew that it had the possibility of getting annoying fast. “Keep an eye on them?”

Sakura wondered if she should feel insulted that they’d been stuck with a babysitter, but then she remembered seeing what the dogs could do in Wave and felt a little better. If they did run into any trouble with Taki shinobi, Shiba would be able to evade them and get one of the jōnin - he was sturdier than a clone too.

Kurenai-sensei looked doubtful. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“Ninken are allowed in Takimizu,” Kakashi-sensei pointed out. “And there’s been an increase in people going missing from the northern border countries for the last five or so years. Sending Shiba is a reasonable precaution.”

Sakura frowned - she hadn’t heard anything about there being more people going missing in the north, but she also hadn’t been paying much attention either. Lightning and Earth were where any problems would come from, not the tinier border countries and Uzumaki-san had less books on the smaller countries to let her borrow, since most of the border lands were pieces ceded from each of the Five Elemental nations after the First Shinobi War to act as buffer zones.

“That’s true.” Kurenai-sensei conceded before handing over the pouches. “Remember, no later than sundown and behave. You’re representing our village to a foreign power.”

Sakura tucked hers into a hidden pocket in her pants while Shino’s vanished into his coat. He pushed his glasses up and looked between their teachers. “May I place an insect on you? Why? Because we will be able to find you if needed.”

Genma shrugged and held out a hand, carefully bringing the insect that landed on it up to his hair, letting it crawl behind his ear. “Shicca’s like to perch there and not many people noticed them.”

The other jōnin each took an insect as well, letting the insects vanish as they willed, before Kakashi and Kurenai disappeared, leaving the other four alone in the kitchen. Genma was the first to react, rolling his senbon as he pushed back from the table and Shiba disappeared through the door. “Let the staff know we’re done in here and then we’re going to head out.”

Sakura stuck her head out of the doorway to inform the kitchen workers they were leaving before following Genma out of the villa and onto the street.

No one was up this early and Sakura didn’t bother trying to disguise her curiosity as she took in the neighborhood  - Konoha didn’t have houses and walls like this, will flowers growing up the outside of the walls and almost no trees more than a foot taller than the surrounding walls. The houses were all stone, with tiled roofs, and various shades of cream and white. She wrinkled her nose at the lack of obstructing features, eyeing several windows critically - she could hurl a kunai through any of them without any trouble - the walls weren’t much of an obstacle at all, when they weren’t even tall enough in some cases to block her view of the lower level windows and some of the gates had _holes_ in them for what looked like decorative purposes!

Shino looked just as unimpressed with the security, but Genma looked amused. “It’s a civilian city kids - they’re not very good at protecting themselves.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

If the ambassador’s residence had been impressive, the building the Daimyo’s brother was staying at was even more so - it had to be twice as large and Sakura could just see the tops of ornamental trees over the wall and clearly into the open balcony doors on the second floor. Genma lead them around the side, to a small door - a servant’s door - and opened without bothering to knock, pressing a thumb to a seal that Sakura noticed inked into the wood and feeding a thread of chakra into it.

Sakura and Shino followed him, Tenzo behind them, and Sakura gaped at the garden in front of her - it was a functional garden and she identified some of the vegetables but a lot of them were strange - as it spread out over a large portion of the grounds, neat squares separating herbs from vines from flowers. Behind the garden, the grounds were more familiar, reminding Sakura of the Yamanaka or her own family’s grounds, except for the lack of tall trees, which were all short and ornamental.

“Shiranui!” A woman strode toward them - an Inuzuka if her tattoos were anything to go by, nearly as tall as Genma - her hand raised in greeting. She came to a stop in front of them, eyebrows going up when she saw Sakura and Shino. “Didn’t realize you’d be bringing the nursery with you.”

Sakura bit her lip so that she didn’t say anything that she’d get in trouble for and beside her, the sound of Shino’s insects grew a little louder. They _weren’t_ incapable, even if she knew they were inexperienced, and this shinobi had no business insulting them without even knowing them.

“Tsuki.” Genma said, warning coloring his tone. “This is Sakura Haruno and Shino Aburame, Hatake’s teammate and one of Yūhi’s genin.”

Tsuki blinked and glanced back at them again, her expression more considering. “Kurenai’s a good jōnin,” she sounded contemplative. “And Hatake has a….” her expression cleared, “two man team?”

Sakura glanced at Shino, puzzled. She’d filled out the application for the two man squad because it had been quicker and seemed easier than the form for an apprenticeship (they’d seen that one in the Academy - it had been thick) but apparently it meant something to the jōnins, which meant she’d need to do research when they got back to Konoha (she wasn’t going to _admit_ that she had no idea what the difference between an apprenticeship and a two man squad actually was).

Genma nodded and continued. “Hatake and Yūhi sent us over while the ambassador’s speaking to the Daimyo’s representative.”

“Good luck with that.” Tsuki sounded derisive. “We’ve been here for the last seven months and haven’t gotten anywhere.” She shook her head, turning to lead them into the main house. “If the Daimyo wasn’t so adamant about expanding trade north, Arata would have been back in the capital within a few weeks of arriving.”

“But…” Genma prompted as they entered the house and Sakura bit back a gasp - she wasn’t going to act like a child with Tsuki right there, not _now_ \- at the sight of the entrance hall. It was large, the ceiling soaring over their heads and supported by large columns, and Sakura took note of all of the shadowed nooks and crannies that someone could hide - no house in Konoha would ever look like this.

“After….” Tsuki made an impatient gesture as she led them further into the house, dodging around servants and well-dressed officials - she didn’t recognize the uniforms, even if she recognized they _were_ uniforms. “We were preparing to leave, since it didn’t seem wise to be outside of Fire - and Arata agreed - but the Daimyo here insisted that we stay, since he couldn’t guarantee the procession’s safety from bandits or shinobi from Oto or Suna.” She shook her head. “Shigetaka confirmed that there were rumored bandit attacks as well as an increase in people going missing while traveling, so Arata sent a message to the Daimyo and here you are.” She glanced back at Sakura and Shino, her expression doing something complicated. “With genin.”

“We were told this would be a straightforward escort mission.” Tenzo said quietly, still behind them. “It wasn’t until we were several days into the journey that the ambassador told us what the Daimyo really wanted.”

Sakura’s gaze darted between the three jōnin - she and Shino been told that the mission parameters had changed, but no one had gone into specifics and it looked like they were going to keep talking around it. She could guess, but it would have been nice to be _told_. They turned into a side hallway and the amount of people walking the halls lessened dramatically and Sakura took an experimental sniff, feeding a little chakra into her nose as she did.

Tsuki’s scent was there, at least three others that used this hall a lot, if how strong the smell was was any indication - hopefully Kakashi-sensei wouldn’t expect her to work this out on her own - one of which smelled sort of like Shino - dry paper and something that reminded her of working in her aunt’s kitchen garden when she was small. Tsuki knocked on the door, waiting patiently until it was opened before heading into the room while they followed.

“Are these the Konoha shinobi?” The speaker was a young man in his late twenties with short brown hair that stuck in every direction, even if she was sure that the current court fashion was longer hair. The man stood while Genma and Tenzo bowed, Sakura and Shino quickly following suit.

“Tokubetsu Jōnin Genma Shiranui, with Jōnin Tenzo and Genin Sakura Haruno and Shino Aburame.”

Sakura kept her head down, but she was surprised - she’d never heard Genma this formal before.

“Thank you for coming,” the young man - the Daimyo’s brother, he had to be. Arata, she thought Tsuki had said - sat back down. “We hadn’t been expecting you.”

Genma straightened and Sakura quickly followed suit, watching Arata with interest. He didn’t seem like a noble, but her basis for comparison had been the Hokage and the man in front of her wasn’t anything like him, lacking the commanding presence she was familiar with.

“Your brother wants you home.” Genma rolled his senbon between his teeth for a moment. “And Konoha owes the Daimyo a great deal.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

That night, before they’d settled in to sleep, Sakura took a breath - she wasn’t sure if she was allowed, but she’d gotten used to running every morning and it hadn’t been so bad while they were coming here - and asked, “Kakashi-sensei, do you think it’d be alright if I went running in the morning? Before we had to leave for the day?”

Kakashi-sensei looked up from the papers he had been flipping through, visible eyebrow raised, “That’d be at dawn.” It wasn’t really a question, more like he was making sure _she_ knew when that was.

“I know.” Sakura ducked her head, picking at the cover on her bed. “I go running then every day, but I wasn’t sure if it’d be allowed while we were here or not.” Since they weren’t keeping watches or actively going anywhere and running wouldn’t reveal anything about how Konoha fought or even trained - _all_ shinobi ran. A shinobi that couldn’t run was a dead shinobi.

There was a long silence and Sakura had just decided to tell Kakashi-sensei never mind, she’d figure out another way to train when he spoke, “You can, but not alone - one of the ninken will go with you.”

Shiba, curled up under Kakashi-sensei’s bed, let out a distressed whine. “But that’s _early_.” The dog had reappeared when they’d left Arata’s residence and stuck with her and Shino, even when all they had done was explore the ambassador’s house.

Kakashi-sensei’s lone eye rolled and he sighed as he bit his thumb, putting the papers to the side and leaning over, placing his palm flat on the floor. Sakura coughed as smoke filled the room before dissipating and blinked at the massive dog that filled the open space in the room. The dog let out a huff of air before coming over and sniffing her carefully, his breath ruffling her hair.

“This is Bull,” Kakashi-sensei said, “He likes mornings, so he’ll go running with you - stay in this level or the upper level, since the center level is for residential and more heavily patrolled.” He placed the papers in a folder he slipped under his pillow and blew out the light as Bull dropped to the ground on Sakura’s side of the room, moving her bed a few inches. She stifled a yelp before laying down and pulling her covers over her head and almost instantly dropped into sleep - between the snuffling sound that the dogs made and the way that Kakashi-sensei’s chakra filled the room, she didn’t feel like she was in enemy territory.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The next morning she woke up just as the sun rose over the wall, slipping out of the room so she didn’t wake up Shiba (Kakashi-sensei was already gone and Sakura wondered if she should have asked if he wanted to run with her before dismissing the idea. Kakashi-sensei had better things to do), Bull following silently. She padded silently down the hall, pulling her hair back into a short ponytail - it was growing longer and she’d have to decide what to do with it soon.

She went out the side gate, which opened into a narrow alley, barely wide enough for a person to walk normally and glanced in both directions before turning towards the lake - they’d looked at it the other afternoon, but hadn’t gotten a chance to see it up close, since there were no doors that opened _towards_ the lake. The sun was cast a soft golden glow over everything as Sakura stepped onto a narrow path that ran beside the backs of the houses. Another path for servants and guests that couldn’t be seen entering through the main gate.

Bull crowded behind her and she turned to the right, setting off at a brisk pace - she wasn’t going to run on the walls here, so she pushed her speed higher than normal, to try and compensate. It didn’t really work, but it was something.

The lake was large, nearly as wide around as Konoha and Sakura thought she had enough time to do two laps before she would be expected back, so long as she hurried. As she ran, she studied the villas, looking for weak points in security and entry points - she didn’t think she’d _actually_ need them, but it was a good thought exercise.

It wasn’t until she was three quarters around the lake and a stray bit of light reflected off the water into her eyes that she noticed something about the lake was...off. She slowed to a brisk walk, eyes sweeping the lake - there weren’t any boats. She finally stopped entirely, pushing loose hair out of her face absently before impatiently beginning to tie it back again when the wind blew it into her face.

Her hands slowed and then stilled as she studied that lake again. There were no boats on it, not even working fishing boats. There were no animals floating on the surface and there should have been - it was the beginning of migration season, when thousands of snow geese and other birds began to flock to Konoha as the northern countries started their winter months. But Waterfall should have been a stopping point for them to rest.

She bit her lip for a moment and hesitated before beginning to pick her way over to the strip of sand, letting her gaze sweep the area, looking for any sort of wildlife and growing uneasy when she couldn’t see anything - there were piers with boats docked scattered around the lake and several small shelters made of wood and cloth on the beach - but she remembered being in Wave and seeing boats in the water at dawn, catching as many fish as they could before the fog burned away and how _all_ the fishermen, even the ones allowed by Gato, would retreat to shaded shelters during the heat of the day.

Bull followed behind her, sniffing the ground, but he refused to let her near the lake, his fur standing up slightly as he growled low in his chest. Sakura tried to push past him, but he blocked her way and after the third time, she finally stopped and stared at him.

“I’m not going to get _in_ the water.” Sakura told him patiently. “I just want to see in it - to see if there are animals in the lake.”

Bull considered her for a moment before letting her pass, following along closely enough that he was almost on top of her. She went to the very edge of the water, crouching down and examining it - this close it was easy to see something was… off about the lake - the surface was glass smooth, despite the breeze that teased at Sakura’s hair. She lowered her face some more, looking for some sign that there were animals in the water.

“You’re not supposed to do that, you know.”

Sakura yelped and would have fallen into the water if Bull hadn’t grabbed the back of her shirt, swinging her around to land on the sand. She scrambled to her feet, hands automatically reaching for her weapons pouch until she remembered she’d left it back at the villa - she’d had Bull, why would she have needed it?

The voice belonged to a girl maybe a year or two older than her, dark skin with green hair and amber eyes and a Taki hitai-ate wrapped around her upper arm. She was sitting on the roof of one of the shelters, watching Sakura with a curious expression. Sakura watched her right back, comforted by Bull pressing against her back.

“Why not?” She asked finally. Maybe it was like the Forest of Death, but right in the middle of the city? Except she hadn’t thought that Takigakure was anywhere near the city, but the girl couldn’t have been more than a chūnin and if she was, she was probably newly promoted.

The girl rolled her eyes and hopped off the shelter, landing on the beach. “Because it’s a bad idea to go into the water before third bell.”

That… that made no sense whatsoever and Sakura narrowed her eyes at the girl. “When’s third bell?” Konoha didn’t really have any sort of formal, public time announcement - either you knew what time it was on your own or you were out of luck. Maybe it was an all civilian thing?

“Third bell is when the sun is… there.” The girl’s finger pointed at a spot midway between the horizon and where the sun would reach its peak. She frowned. “Didn’t anyone tell you _anything_?”

Sakura had just opened her mouth to snap something at the girl when the girl started speaking, fidgeting slightly with the hem of her arm warmers as she did. “If you want, I can show you around.” Amber eyes met hers before glancing away. “So you don’t get in trouble if you don’t know stuff, I mean. That wouldn’t be polite to do to a guest.”

Sakura stopped - the girl sounded like she was _serious_ and her tone was earnest. She bit her lip as she considered it. Having a local - assuming the girl was local - would make things more interesting and she and Shino had been told that they should spend time doing things that normal visitors would do….

“I have to check with my sensei, but I don’t see why not.” She said finally, since she was definitely going to make sure that it was alright with Kakashi-sensei first and she should probably check with Kurenai-sensei too. “If I can, where should we meet?”

The girl brightened and almost bounced in place, beaming at Sakura. “How about where the levels meet? What would be a good time?”

Sakura blinked, slightly surprised and a little suspicious. Why would the girl want to hang out with a foreign shinobi? Had she been told to try and get information by acting friendly? But she managed to come up with an answer. “Mid-afternoon.” She told her - Bull’s growling had subsided, making Sakura feel a little better.

The girl nodded, short green hair bobbing. “Mid-afternoon.” She gave Sakura an enthusiastic grin. “I’ll see you there!”

Sakura nodded in agreement and turned to head back to the villa - there wasn’t any point in trying to finish her run now. She made it halfway back to the path before she remembered something and turned to yell, “What’s your name?” Kakashi-sensei wouldn’t be impressed if she didn’t at least have the girl’s _name_.

The girl was still there and her voice was clear when she called back, “Fū! My name’s Fū!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think!


	12. Chapter the Ninth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which there is learning, planning, and exploring.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to [Elena](https://archiveofourown.org/users/elenathehun) for reading this over and encouraging me.

Sakura tracked Kakashi-sensei down as soon as she made it back to the villa and made her request before they divided for the day, laying out all of the reasons that this would be a good idea - they could use a native guide, she was a genin of Taki and would (probably) keep them from getting harassed, and she might be a source of information.

 

Kakashi-sensei stared at her before his gaze flickered over to Bull, who was standing behind her. There was a pause as Kakashi-sensei exchanged glances with Kurenai-sensei before he sighed. "Alright, as long as she's offering and you have Shino or one of the dogs with you." 

 

Sakura nodded quickly - she hadn't been about to go anywhere with the girl - Fu, her name was Fu - by herself, but not having to worry about getting lost would be nice. Shino stood in the doorway, watching. Sakura said, as she turned towards him, "I thought she could show us around the market district, maybe she knows some places that are less crowded." 

 

They had thought about going to explore the other day, but he hadn't wanted to deal with the crowds - Konoha was different, everyone understood clan quirks, but here the people wouldn't understand them. And one of those quirks was that Aburame didn't do well in crowds, preferring to have some space between them and others to prevent their insects from being accidentally crushed and to allow quick disbursement. People in Konoha automatically left some space around an Aburame, but there was no guarantee the civilians here would do that.  

 

“A native guide our own age would be good.” Unspoken was that since she was their age, they could probably take her in a fight if they had to. Shino pushed his glasses up his nose. “Why? They will know things that might interest us.”

 

Kurenai-sensei spoke, her voice gentle. “Remember, no matter how nice she may be, she’s still a foreign shinobi.”

 

“Yes sensei.” She and Shino spoke at the same time. That was something that they could never afford to forget. 

 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

Arata was alone when Genma lead her and Shino into the room and Sakura glanced around the room for his escorts. Neither of them were there and she wondered where they had vanished. He was sitting at a desk going over papers, but when they walked into the room he looked up and rose to his feet, stepping forward to meet them, and Sakura absently noted the quality of his clothing - gold thread was expensive if it was real and she doubted the daimyo’s youngest brother would settle for anything less than the real thing, no matter how much was needed to create his family’s crest on his clothes. 

 

“Good morning.” Arata used a pen he’d been holding to point to a small table off to the side. “I have some food if you haven’t eaten already.” The table had a small collection of cold foods on it and Sakura only recognized a few of them, but the ones she did looked delicious and the ones that were unfamiliar looked interesting. 

 

Shino and Sakura both looked at Genma for permission and he sighed but flapped his hand in silent acquiescence as he walked over to Arata, greeting their client cheerfully. Sakura moved quickly, grabbing two fluffy pastries before going to stand by Genma, where she could listen. 

 

Shino stayed over by the food, but Sakura felt a light ticklish sensation on her ear and guessed one of his insects had landed on her there, so he could still listen without being obvious. Genma glanced down at her but didn’t shoo her away, so Sakura assumed she was allowed to listen to the rest of the conversation.

 

“Haruno and Aburame will be the ones to hide you under the genjutsus as we leave - Yuhi will be the one to make it appear as though you’re still in the building.” Genma’s tone was similar to the one that he’d used when they’d gone over the exercises that he’d given her and Shino on the road, but he’d taken his senbon and tucked it behind his ear, out of easy reach. 

 

Arata sighed, “I don’t really understand why we need to be this secretive, but I’ll trust your judgement. How will Yuhi-san and my other servants remove themselves from the premises once the deception has been discovered?”

 

Sakura thought that was a good question and it made her like Arata a little more, that he was worried enough to ask about his servants and Kurenai-sensei. 

 

Genma didn’t seem to mind either, his shoulders loosening a little as he replied. “The ambassador will absorb your servants into his own staff and take them back into Fire Country with him when he leaves, while Yuhi, Aburame, and Inuzuka will slip out with one of the merchant caravans that go in and out of the city on a daily basis.” 

 

Sakura wondered how they were going to explain Kurenai-sensei’s absence on the way out of the city, but she could wait to ask, since asking in front of Arata seemed imprudent and she wasn’t sure that she would be told - she didn’t technically need to know, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask. Later, when it was just them and not their client.

 

“I’d like some more details, if you please, Shirunai-san,” Arata said finally and Genma nodded agreeably. 

 

“Of course. I’ll release Haruno and Aburame for the rest of the day, then we can sit down and go over whatever concerns you might have. Just one moment.” Genma stepped back gracefully and head for the table as Sakura followed him to where Shino was finishing one of the pastries. Sakura grabbed another one, picking it apart as Genma pulled out two wooden tokens, each about the length of a hand and a few inches wide. 

 

“These are the chits that the guard mentioned when we arrived.” He handed them over. “Do  _ not _ lose them - we don’t need any incidents - and do not go any place with your new friend that makes you uncomfortable. This isn’t Konoha.”

 

Sakura took the chit and placed on her belt, next to her money pouch, where it would be clearly visible if anyone was looking. They’d already gone over this before they’d even come, but it was clearly making Genma feel better to repeat it again, and she didn’t doubt they’d hear it again at least a few times over the next couple of weeks. And she wasn’t planning on going anywhere she wasn’t supposed to - public places only. 

  
  


*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

Fu was waiting for them at the gate, leaning against the low wall as Shino, Sakura, and Shiba approached. The dog had appeared again when they’d left Arata’s residence and begun to escort them towards the gate, chattering the entire time, and Sakura decided she like Bull better. It wasn’t that she minded conversation, but Shiba just talked to talk. 

 

Sakura saw the other girl first, her short green hair and darker skin standing out against the cream colored stone. Fu had changed since this morning, trading the shorts and t-shirt for a completely white outfit with fishnets - Sakura wrinkled her nose at the lack of color, but she hadn’t seen  _ any _ of citizens of Waterfall wearing anything but white.  When Fu spotted them, she straightened, raising her hand in greeting. “I wasn’t sure if you’d come, ‘cause midafternoon is sort of vague, but I thought I should be here early, just in case…”

  
  


She blinked when she saw Shino and Shiba, before grinning. “I’m Fu! Sorry, I should have said first thing, but my Grandpa says that sometimes I forget the basics but I’ve been working on it, because you need to be able to think for yourself if you want to be chunin!”

 

Sakura wasn’t sure where to start with that. “This is Shino and Shiba.” She paused, “Oh! I’m Sakura.” She hadn’t introduced herself that morning. 

 

Fu cocked her head to the side and her grin widened. “Nice to meet you! What do you want to see first? There’s the market, that’s always interesting - a trade caravan stopped in yesterday so there should be new goods.” 

 

Shino kept quiet, so Sakura figured she should take the lead on this one. “The market sounds good, do they have food stalls there?” It probably did - Konoha’s markets usually had at least a few food offerings, but maybe they were kept in separate places here, like in Wave. 

 

“Yup!” Fu lead the way, nearly bouncing as she walked. “There’s some foreign food stalls, if you want to get stuff from Earth or Fire…” She paused and glanced back. “Well, maybe not Fire. But there’s also stuff that’s local, if you want to try those foods.”

 

“I would like to try some of the local foods,” Shino said, picking up the pace to he was walking with them. “Do you have any recommendations?”

 

“Do I!” Fu turned so she was walking backwards. “How do you feel about crawfish?”

 

Sakura blinked. “What’s a crawfish?”

 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

They followed Fu up through the second level without lingering, then up a narrow set of steps to the topmost level. Sakura couldn’t help but stare at the stalls and wagons stretching in both directions as far as Sakura could see. It was also crowded, bustling with more people than Sakura was used to seeing in one place.

 

“This is one of the biggest markets in the north!” Fu informed them, sticking to the edges of the crowd. “People come from all over the place to trade here!”

 

Sakura and Shino stayed near Fu, not wanting to risk getting lost - Shiba had taken one look at the crowd and then vanished, but Sakura didn’t think he’d gone far. 

 

“Why don’t they got to Wonjin?” She wondered out loud. She would have thought that the largest trading hub in the north would be in Earth Country, with their capital city.  Kumo’s was right in the middle of a mountain range and all of the other countries were so… small. 

 

“It’s too far north,” Fu turned down a side street and the sounds of the crowd faded. “Takimizu is the closest city with a large enough market space to accommodate traders that isn’t snowed under half the year and we’re not over four hundred miles from any other major cities either.”

 

“Oh.” Sakura felt slightly foolish, but she’d never really considered the whys and hows of trading - it hadn’t come up in the Academy and once she’d decided on shinobi as a career choice, her mother had stopped attempting to teach her the ins and outs of the cloth trade. 

 

Sakura was about to say something else when the sight of lone cypress tree out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. “Fu, what’s that?”

 

The tree was standing alone in the middle of a square and towered over all of the other buildings around it. There weren’t any stalls set up under it and no one was stopping to rest at the base. It was odd, especially since it looked like the perfect tree. If they were in Konoha, kids would be all over it, in the branches, climbing the trunk, crawling in the roots.

 

Fu glanced over at the tree and her grin faltered. “That’s the Missing Tree. It’s used for executions.  On the new moons, criminals are left tied to the base and when the sun rises, they’re gone.” 

 

That… that sounded horrible and Sakura wondered what the city  _ did _ to the criminals that they made up that sort of story, but she didn’t ask - it wasn’t her city, after all, so it wasn’t really her business. 

 

“Here we go!” Fu’s grin was back as she came to a stop in front of a small building. “This is the best food in the whole city and Piyapat-san is really nice!”

 

She ducked inside and the two of them followed hesitantly - the building seemed run down, the paint dull with age and the rice paper that covered the windows was yellowing. As Sakura stepped inside she let her gaze sweep the main room, taking in the dim lighting and the dirt floor. If she was in Konoha, she wouldn’t have given the building a second glance and Sakura quickly located Fu at the counter, speaking to an older woman with tanned, wrinkled skin and hair pulled back into a messy bun, Fu’s words seeming to trip over each other.

 

“.... and they’re friendly and wanted to know about local foods so I thought maybe you could pick something that they might like?” Fu glanced at them before turning back to the woman. “Please Piyapat-san?”

 

Piyapat gave them a once over, black eyes not giving anything away before she turned back to the kitchen. “Alright then, go find a seat while I start cooking. It should be out in a moment.” 

 

The three of them picked out a table that let them all see the different exits, Shino and Sakura sitting so they could cover each other and Fu so that she could see as much as possible. “Payipat-san is from Rice and she makes really good food, so she’ll pick things you’ll like!” 

 

“Thank you for your consideration.” Shino shifted as a few of his insects crawled down his arms and then on the table. Sakura’s gaze darted over to Fu, to see how she’d react, but the other girl didn’t do anything other than lean forward with interest.

 

“That is so cool,” she breathed, her eyes darting up to Shino’s. “Is it a summons? If it is, that’d be really cool, ‘cause I love insects, they’re awesome.” 

 

That… that had not been the reaction that Sakura had been expecting, but watching Shino get flustered was intriguing- she’d never seen it happen before.

 

Shino pushed his glasses up his nose, taking a moment to answer. “It’s a  kekkei genkai,” he said finally and Sakura thought that he sounded surprised that Fu was so enthusiastic about his bugs. 

 

Payipat came over then and placed four steaming bowls in front of them. Sakura peered at the two in front of Fu - one bowl was full of broth that smelled spicy with a little lemon underneath - her eyes began watering and she dropped the amount of chakra she was sending to her nose immediately - and she realized she did know what crawfish were, but she’d never eaten them. The other bowl was rice covered in a fruity smelling sauce, with chunks of carrots and other vegetables mixed in. 

 

Shino’s bowl was rice as well, the sauce more savory and thicker, piled high with chicken and more vegetables. Sakura sniffed and feed some more chakra into her nose - she didn’t recognize some of the spices - trying to commit them to memory so she could try and find them in the market later. 

 

Her own bowl was rice covered in a green sauce that smelled delicious and she only took a second to wonder about poisons - unlikely, given they were guests - before taking a bite. The spices were unfamiliar and Sakura took another bite, this time letting the flavors sit on her tongue, wondering if she could get Fu to convince Payipat to give her the recipe to take back for Aunt Misa. 

 

Next to her, Shino was eating steadily while Fu devoured her food like she was worried that she wouldn’t ever get any more - it reminded her of Naruto. 

 

“This is really good,” she told Fu, since the other girl was starting to shoot them anxious looks. “Could we go look at the cloth merchants after this? My cousin was asking for some new fabrics.” 

 

Momiji  _ would _ like new fabrics and maybe she could get dyes for Riko - the older girl would like the challenge of trying to replicate the new colors with plants already in the Tsukihana greenhouses - even Kaede would like some new threads or even patterns. She would keep an eye out for things that Motoichi would like - inks and brushes mostly - and some of the other cousins that were in the Academy. 

 

Shino pushed his bowl to the side, a few bugs sitting on the rim. “I would like to see some of the spices and plants available for purchase. Why? The spices used in these dishes would be nice to grow at home.”

 

Fu’s grin widened as she stacked her own bowls and pushed back from the table. “Sure! It’s going to take a few days though - there are a  _ lot _ of cloth and spice merchants.”

 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

Genma was waiting for them outside of the house as the two of them walked up the lane that evening, the sun just beginning to paint the sky dark oranges and reds, with Shiba trailing behind them. Sakura exchanged a glance with Shino - had something happened? - as they got closer. There shouldn’t have been any reason for them to really worry, since they were together and they had Shiba with them. 

 

“Did you two have fun?” He looked them over and Sakura noticed he seemed to relax a little as he finished his inspection of them. “Kurenai wanted me to grab you before you wandered off to do whatever it is you might do in the evening.”

 

“It was informative,” Shino told him, falling in behind Genma as he led them into the house. “Why? Because Konoha does not have such an extensive set up.”

Sakura nodded in agreement. “I think the market took up the whole top level and there were a lot of shops that looked more permanent!” She frowned. “Are all of their businesses on the top level?” It had seemed like it.

 

“Top level is for businesses, schools, and temples, middle level is for family and clan housing, and the bottom level is for the rich and the foreign dignitaries.” Genma confirmed and Sakura studied him, watching how he relaxed the more they talked. “Keeps things nice and neat for the civilian police and shinobi.”

 

Kakashi-sensei and Kurenai-sensei were sitting on the floor in one of the unused bedrooms, talking quietly as they looked over a map, Tenzo crouching so that he could see over Kakashi-sensei’s shoulder. They looked up when Genma led them into the room and Kakashi rolled the map up, vanishing it into one of his many pockets. Sakura stepped to one side of the door, leaning against the wall next to the linen closet that should have the bedding used for the room in it. 

 

“We have another week here before we leave, so we’re going over the plan now so that if the two of you have any questions or concerns we can deal with them.” Kurenai-sensei said quietly. “This isn’t something that there will be time for on every mission, but there is time on this one.”

 

Sakura nodded, glancing at Kakashi-sensei - they hadn’t done this in Wave, even though they’d had  _ days _ to talk about what was going on - before refocusing on Kurenai-sensei, remembering Genma and Arata’s conversation from that morning.

 

“Kurenai-sensei, Genma said you’d be staying behind, to hide the fact that we’re leaving with Arata-san.” Sakura spoke slowly, in case this wasn’t something she was supposed to ask. “What if the gate guards ask why you’re not leaving with us?”

 

Kurenai-sensei gave her a small smile. “One of my clones will be going with you, until after you are a few miles from the city. My clone will be staying in one of the wagons, well out of the way, to minimize the risks of disbursement.”

 

“Oh.” Sakura flushed - she should have  _ remembered _ , clones were one of the first things they learned in the Academy when they started studying chakra techniques and Naruto  _ loved _ his shadow clone technique. 

 

Genma chuckled. “Not everything has to be complicated. And if you can keep at least some parts of something complicated simple, it makes life easier.”  

 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

It wasn’t until she was getting ready for bed that she remembered her book and pulled it out, settling on the bed as she flipped it open. There wasn’t anything on the first couple of pages but the third was a list of names and she gently ran her finger over them - these were her ancestors, the people she’d come from and she didn’t recognize most of them, only the last one.

 

_ Tami Haruno _

 

Her grandmother. Sakura didn’t know much of anything about her - only that she had survived to lead most of her children to Konoha but had died at some point before Sakura was born. But if her father had been reluctant to talk about their family’s culture, he had never mentioned her grandmother in her hearing outside of one time during her first year in the Academy, when they had put together a family tree, so that they could explain how bloodline limits worked. 

 

Sasuke’s had been large, she remembered now, tracing it to the first generation after Konoha had been founded. Only Naruto’s had been smaller than hers, with himself and the Third, and Sakura wished she’d known her aunts and uncles better then and had included them on her chart. Not that it would have mattered since the teacher had emphasized how old your family was - not how big - was what mattered. 

 

She flipped to the next page, where the book actually started, and settled in to see how far she could get before Kakashi-sensei returned.  

 

She was lost within a few pages - this was clearly a book intended for beginners, but it assumed the beginners had more information then she did - and she stopped for a moment before hopping off the bed and pulling out some paper and pen so she could start writing down terms she was unfamiliar with. Radial line was a familiar concept from math and having word problems to figure out angles for throwing, but locus was completely foreign. 

 

She glanced up as Kakashi-sensei walked into the room, debating whether to ask him now or wait until later, but in the end, curiosity won out. “Kakashi-sensei?” She waited until he looked in her direction before she held up the book. “Could you explain some of these terms to me?”

 

He crossed the room and sat down on her bed, plucking the book from her hands as he did. She waited in silence while he skimmed the first few pages and then went back over them more slowly before he moved the book so that they could both see it, pointing to one of the diagrams as she settled in next to him.

 

“We’re only going over this page tonight,” he told her, before continuing, “the most important part of any seal is the outer circle, since that traps and contains the energy that you’re trying to harness. If you mess that up, you could wind up seriously injuring or killing yourself and the people around you.”

 

Sakura frowned. “Does that happen a lot?” It didn’t  _ seem _ like it should - it was just a circle after all. 

 

She felt more than saw Kakashi-sensei shrug. “It depends on the size of the seal you’re making and how much of a hurry you’re in. A chunin I graduated with was in a hurry to get an exploding seal completed and left a slight gap in the containment circle because he was free handing it.” There was a pause. “The seal exploded prematurely and wiped out his entire squadron.”

 

Sakura’s frown deepened. If she messed up a sign for a jutsu or missed a kick, the attack wouldn’t work, but it also wouldn’t kill her - sealing seemed more chancy than she was comfortable with, but she wasn’t going to decide. Not yet. Not until she’d looked at all the information she could get. 

 

“So after the outer circle, what’s the next most important part?” She asked finally and pointed at another diagram. “This spiral thing here?”

 

Kakashi-sensei sighed. “This spiral thing, as you call it, is a recurring cycle - if it’s included in a seal, the power within will keep cycling, becoming stronger, until it meets the requirements for releasing that power.” 

 

Sakura tucked a bit of hair behind her ear and leaned over to see more of the diagrams - as long as Kakashi-sensei was willing to explain the book to her, she wanted to be able to see what he was talking about.

 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

Fu was waiting for her the next morning when Sakura stepped onto the path, Bull behind her. Sakura yelped, having not expected anyone to be there and Fu seemed to shrink a little before straightening, a shaky looking smile crossing her face. 

 

“Do you mind if I run with you?” She asked, “I mean, if you don’t want to that’s fine, but I like running and having someone to run with might be fun?” 

 

Sakura wondered if Fu had anyone in her own village, if she was seeking out foreign shinobi for friends, and that thought was enough for her to agree - it might be fun to run with someone else and Fu was good enough company that she didn’t mind. And she remembered what it was like, to be so desperate for friends, and not being able to find them… at least until someone helped you. 

 

They kept to the shoreline - Fu set the pace and picked their route, but Sakura didn’t object, since she didn’t want to risk venturing into the town right now even with Bull. Maybe in a few days, as she became more used to the area, but not right now. The morning was quiet - it was still too early for the residents to begin their days and whatever servants there were would have long since shown up if they didn’t live in the residences themselves - and Fu seemed disinclined to talk while moving. 

 

It was… well, it was more peaceful than Sakura had thought it would be and she decided that she’d see if Tenten’s offer to join Team Gai on their morning runs was still open - the exercise was more enjoyable with companionship. 

 

And maybe running with Lee would help with her stamina, she thought as she struggled to keep up with the other girl, because she clearly wasn’t in good enough shape. Fu’s stamina was  _ insane _ but Sakura refused to stop - sooner or later she’d get her second wind. 

 

Shino was waiting by the path as they finished their fourth lap - Sakura turned and jogged towards him as Fu dropped into some sort of stretches that Sakura wasn’t familiar with. Shino watched them both until Sakura came to a stop next to him and he refocused on her. 

 

“Kurenai-sensei wants to speak with us this morning, if you’re done.” Shino pushed his glasses up his nose as Fu slowly headed in their direction before he addressed the other girl. “We will have the afternoon free if you’re willing to continue to escort us around the market.”

 

Fu nodded instantly. “Sure. We can meet at the same place if you want.” Her eyes brightened as she grinned and Sakura wondered again whether Fu had been asked to get close to them or whether she just didn’t have anyone else to spend time with. She was pretty sure that it was the second - Fu hadn’t asked any questions that seemed suspicious and she hadn’t pushed in the case of Shino’s bugs. And she reminded Sakura of Naruto and his initial attempts to befriend her - without the increasingly ridiculous requests for dates. 

 

“That would be fine,” Shino nodded firmly. “Why? Because we are all familiar with the location.”

 

Sakura pushed her hair back and made a mental note to find a hair tie or ask Kurenai-sensei to cut it for her if the older woman had time - she definitely wasn’t going to ask Kakashi-sensei! - as Fu headed back down the beach, breaking into a run as she hit the sand. 

 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

Sakura sped through a shower and headed towards Shino and Kurenai-sensei’s room, excited to go over the genjutsus again - she was definitely going to continue to study genjutsu. It was easy for her in a way that not a lot of things had been since she graduated. 

 

Shino was seated on his bed across the room from Kurenai-sensei as she read a scroll draped across her knees, slowly unrolling it as she went, and both of them looked up as Sakura walked into the room. Sakura sat down next to Shino after he’d nodded his permission, both of them facing Kurenai-sensei as she sat on her own bed.  

 

Kurenai-sensei set it to the side, stretching a bit as she did. “Today we’re going to run through the illusionary genjutsus and tomorrow morning we’ll go over the vertigo genjutsu with Tenzo.” She grinned at them both. “If you do well enough on those, I’ll teach you another genjutsu - this one for fun.”

 

Sakura immediately began to flex her fingers in preparation - she wanted to add another genjutsu to her arsenal. Genjutsu was  _ fun _ and easy and she hadn’t felt this way about learning things since Wave, when she’d been the first to figure out how to control her chakra enough to run up the tree before either of the boys. She wanted that again. 

 

“As you run through the seals,” Kurenai-sensei’s voice was a low murmur, “picture Arata-san in your mind. Think about how he moved, what he was wearing.”

 

Sakura thought back to that morning, carefully pulling up image of a young man with green eyes - though she couldn’t remember what shade of green, brown hair sticking in all directions like he’d run his hand through it but couldn’t get it to do what he wanted. He’d been wearing solid black hakama with a green kimono, the crest of the Daimyo’s family stitched onto the ends of his sleeves in solid gold. He held himself with confidence - he knew that people would listen when he spoke and expected them to obey if he gave orders - and he’d had a habit of twirling a pencil or other item while he spoke to Genma. 

 

She let the image go as she reached the last sign and watched as her imagined Arata appeared next to Shino’s. It…. she frowned as she studied it, already noticing things that… they didn’t seem  _ right _ . She glanced between the two - Shino’s Arata was taller than hers, almost a foot taller than Kurenai-sensei, and his clothing was duller and more monochromatic, with the greens a muddy brown color - before looking at their teacher. 

 

Kurenai-sensei examined the illusions carefully before turning to them. “You may cancel them now - we’ll try again in a few minutes.” She focused on Shino first, ticking off points on her fingers. “Shino-kun - You were closest in height, if a little tall, since Arata is an inch taller than Genma and not the same height as Kakashi. You were as close as you can be with colors and we’ll continue to work on that.” She continued, her mouth tilting upward in amusement. “Luckily, you’ll be creating an illusion of  _ me _ when we leave and I don’t wear nearly as many colors as Arata.”

 

Sakura tensed as Kurenai-sensei looked over at her and then relaxed when she noticed the approval in the woman’s gaze. “Sakura, you need to work more on estimating heights - Arata is most definitely taller than I am, but the details you remembered about his clothes, bearing, and mannerisms were impressive considering the amount of time that you spent in his company.” 

 

Kurenai-sensei dispelled the illusions before Sakura could decide how to react - Kurenai-sensei had thought she had done well! - and moved to stand in front of them. “Now, you’ll be creating an illusion of me  _ over _ another person, so now - one at a time - I want you to create the illusion of Arata over my own form. I’m not going to help in any way, so you’re going to have to compensate for how I move and behave.”

 

Shino frowned for a moment before he spoke. “Would it be easier to have one of us create the illusion over you while the other creates another illusion to compensate for any missteps?” 

 

That… that sounded complicated, but Sakura didn’t say anything as she considered the question - she and Shino would have to  _ really _ work together well in order to pull it off. “We could give it a try,” she said finally, glancing over at Shino. “If it doesn’t work we can work on it back home, so the next mission we can try it.”

 

Kurenai-sensei clapped her hands together, drawing their attention back to her for the moment. “What you’re talking about is a dual illusion and incredibly difficult to achieve - both shinobi have to be able to work in tandem and compensate for each other without having to converse, because you might not always be close enough to each other or the danger of speaking might be too high.” She gave them both a small smile and continued, “It’s commendable that you want to try it, so we’ll spend some time working on it, just so you can see what it’s like.”

 

She had been right - the two of them just couldn’t get in sync enough to pull off the double illusion. Either Shino would forget himself and try to compensate on his own, creating an interesting effect where it looked like “Arata” had two bodies, or Sakura wouldn’t be able to keep up with Kurenai-sensei’s movements and an arm or a leg would show up that very clearly didn’t belong to Arata. 

 

“That wasn’t bad,” Kurenai-sensei told them when they’d finished. “Not the best, but not bad for a first try either.” She sat down on her own bed, facing them. “Excellent work, the both of you - we’ll continue to work on this for the next week, but I think you’ve earned another jutsu.”

 

Sakura and Shino both perked up, focusing their attention on their teacher. Sakura kept herself still by sheer effort - she couldn’t wait to add something new and show it to Uzumaki-san when she got back. 

 

“This technique is similar to the vertigo one in that it doesn’t affect just the five senses - it’s been classified as both a ninjutsu, because it causes physical effects, and a genjutsu because it creates an illusion. What this means is that it is one of the rare few genjutsus that  _ isn’t _ neutralized by to either of the two dojutsu.” Kurenai-sensei kept her tone even and Sakura blinked - she hadn’t realized that there were genjutsu that could work on the Hyuga.  

Kurenai-sensei paused for a few brief seconds before continuing briskly, “The hand seals needed for this genjutsu are Tiger, Dragon, Ox, Boar, Rat.” She ran through the hands seals slowly so that they could follow her movements and Sakura mimicked her - shifting her hands from Tiger to Dragon was hard, but Ox, Boar, and Rat flowed smoothly together. She did it again as Kurenai-sensei waited for them to get familiar with the new jutsu’s rhythm. Beside her, Shino was doing the same, the low hum of his insects loud in the otherwise silent room. 

 

“Now,” Kurenai-sensei said after a few minutes, “let’s run through this one a few times and then we’ll go find Tenzo and practice on him.”

 

They spent the afternoon practicing the jutsu, ambushing Tenzo and Genma as the two wandered around the villa - Kakashi had vanished after Sakura had told him about Kurenai-sensei’s lesson - but the two older shinobi didn’t seem to mind, since they were willing to throw off the jutsu and let themselves be caught again and again, until Kurenai-sensei called a halt to the practice right before dinner. 

 

“You’ve both come a long way and continued practice will help with that,” she told them. “From now on, after the dinner meal, the two of you will be practicing all three of the genjutsus on Tenzo or Genma -  _ after _ informing them that you’re going to start practicing.” 

 

Sakura and Shino nodded - they didn’t want to surprise two jonin. That was a really good way to wind up unconscious. 

 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

Sakura continued meeting up with Fu - every day, without fail, the other girl would meet her and Bull at the beach and they’d go running, sprinting over the sand. Sakura took the time to figure out which house was Arata’s - from the beach, it was a cream colored house that blended with both houses on either side, which was unusual since most of the houses had  _ some _ sort of decoration on the outside. 

 

“Those are the house markings,” Fu told her on the fourth day. “It makes it easy for the guests going on walks on the beach in the evening to find their way back. The foreigner’s houses don’t have the markings because so they aren’t permanent residents.” 

 

With that in mind, Sakura figured out that about a quarter of the houses were set aside for foreign visitors and she wondered who else might be staying in the city and she made a note to start paying more attention - maybe she could figure out who was here. 

 

When they went to Arata’s residence, they studied him, watched the way he moved and reacted, needing to know for when they disguised him as Kurenai-sensei on the way out of the city. It was hard - he was more flamboyant, talking with his hands and twirling whatever writing utensil he had at hand. It wasn’t until the third day they’d been studying him that Genma locked the door of the study and had them practice casting the genjutsu while Arata worked and talked to Tsuki and  Shigetaka. It was  _ hard _ , having to compensate for for that, to make it look like his arms weren’t moving when they were - even after Genma had talked to him, Arata still had trouble downplaying his movements. 

 

“Habit,” he’d said apologetically, running a hand through his hair, “I’m the youngest of my brothers, so I must be more expressive in order to get attention.” A rueful smile, “I’m sure that’s part of what caught my uncle’s attention when I was younger - I was a  _ loud _ child.”

 

It took Sakura a moment to realize that when he said uncle, he meant the  _ Daimyo. _

 

But the afternoons were the best - she and Shino were free to explore the markets with Fu, who was there every day and eager to show them around the market. Every day was finding a new food or a stall from somewhere that Sakura was sure she was never going to visit - her favorite was the merchant that had travelled from the Kiko Island with a stall full of delicate glass flowers in various states of bloom. She bought herself a branch with a set a delicate green and blue flowers. 

 

As the week wore on, they spent less time exploring the market and more time sitting on the wall separating the top level from the middle one, looking over the lake and talking, while Shiba lay at the foot of the wall or in a nearby shadow. 

 

“It’s just me now,” Fu said, idly kicking her legs. Sakura had asked her if she needed to train with anyone - partially out of concern, since she didn’t think that being complacent in letting Fu play hooky would endear them to the local shinobi. Not that she’d even  _ noticed _ any Taki nin, but she didn’t doubt they were around. Fu continued, “It was me and Grandfather, but he died last year - old age - so now I’m at loose ends until I get promoted to chunin.”

 

“Ah,” Sakura said finally. She wasn’t sure  _ what _ to say for a moment before she pulled up her funeral manners, “I’m sorry for your loss.” And she was - losing a close family member had to be terrible. 

 

Fu nudged her gently. “Thanks.” She paused for a moment before continuing, “I think you’re the first person to tell me that.”

Sakura opened her mouth and then closed it again before wordlessly offering a bit of the pork bun they’d bought from Payipat earlier in the afternoon. What was she supposed to say to that? There wasn’t anything someone could say to that, so they sat in silence and watched the villagers hurry through the main street into their homes, passing the pork bun between them until it was time for Shino and Sakura to head back to the villa.

 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

“Come on, just a little further!” Sakura darted past Fu - she’d miss her when they left in a few days - to race towards the Missing Tree. “Last one there buys lunch!” 

 

Bull pulled ahead and Sakura let out a crow of victory as she slapped her hand and rested it on the trunk, guiltily yanking it back when she saw Fu’s flinch and skipping back a step so that she wasn’t standing so close to the truck.  “I win!” Doing the morning runs with Fu had helped her speed, since she hadn’t wanted the other girl to leave her in the dust.

 

Fu came to a stop next to her, resting her hands on her knees and watching Sakura through her bangs. “Cheater.” The accusation was without heat, so Sakura ignored it as she handed over her water canteen. 

 

“Faster.”  She knew she sounded a little smug, but didn’t care - Fu was  _ fast _ , almost as fast as Lee, so for her to be going faster… maybe she’d be able to give Lee a decent workout as long as he didn’t take off his weights. 

 

“Do you need to start heading back?” 

 

Sakura glanced at the sky, noting the position of the sun, shining weakly through the early morning haze. “I probably should, but Shino and I can meet you for lunch when we get done.” 

 

They were almost good enough with the genjutsu meant to make it look like Arata was just one of their party and someone the city guards could safely ignore - Tsuki would be going with them, since she needed to talk to her clan head, while Genma stayed back with Shigetaka until they were relieved by another jonin pair. 

 

Fu stretched, arching her back, before dropping her hands to her side. “Sounds good - I have…what is  _ that _ ?” 

  
Sakura twisted around as Bull started to growl and barely had time to suck in the air to scream before a white  _ shape _ erupted out of the tree, wrapping itself around her and cutting off her air. Behind her, she could hear Fu yell something before she felt a tugging sensation and everything went black. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> reviews are always appreciated!

**Author's Note:**

> And, as always, feedback is very much appreciated.


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